In today’s edition of the Behind the Bar newsletter: 

• A first glimpse of the governor’s education bill
• Financing health care legislation
• $250 million for housing

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From the Capital Bureau Chief:

Surprise! We’re bringing you a Wednesday edition because Tuesday’s hearing was, to quote a few lawmakers, “unprecedented.” Catch up on the newly discovered deficit of more than $300 million here.

A few key addendums:

• Gov. Joe Lombardo’s Chief of Staff Ryan Cherry told lawmakers he took “full responsibility” for the budget mishaps, saying, “These issues happened underneath my watch … We are moving forward to correct it.” 
• A spokesperson for the governor said the office will submit a budget amendment by Democrats’ deadline of Jan. 29 at 5 p.m.

• Lombardo’s office plans to submit the language for his priority bills by the end of the week.
• Tuesday discussions on the governor’s priority bills went over “just the portions of the bills that have the revenue impacts.” 

Correction: In the photo captions last week, the year should have been 2025. When reached for comment, photojournalist David Calvert said, “This isn’t the first time I’ve done this. Time is meaningless in Carson City.”

As always, please send us your questions, comments, observations, jokes, or what you think we should pay attention to. You can reach me at [email protected].

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Education proposals raise concerns

Lombardo outlined several education policy goals during his State of the State last week, including creating a new fund to incentivize high-performing educators, allowing students to transfer from under-performing schools and establishing a fund allowing parents to get literacy services for their children. Here are new details we learned about the plan on Tuesday: 

• The bill will cost an estimated $70.8 million over the next two fiscal years.
• It would create a new “Excellence in Education Fund” — a dedicated account within the State Education Fund to reward high-performing teachers, administrators and education support professionals.
  • The fund would have no more than $30 million per year, filled by any surplus from the state’s Education Stabilization Account (a sort of rainy day fund for the K-12 budget).
  • “The language of the bill makes it so you have to identify those high-priority teachers,” Cherry said. “We can't just give a blanket high prioritization or high performing standard to all teachers.”
  • Asked by Sen. Rochelle Nguyen (D-Las Vegas) if the incentive is on a first-come, first-served basis, Cherry didn’t answer.
• The bill allocates $1 million annually to allow parents to access state-approved literacy services for their children.
  • Sen. Marilyn Dondero Loop (D-Las Vegas) raised concerns.
    • “We need to fund and support things that we have in place, and not say that everyone can just come in and tell us, ‘Oh, well, this is how you're going to do it,” she said.
• Under the bill’s education accountability program, Cherry said students in persistently underperforming one- and two-star schools will be eligible to transfer to another public or approved private school if there are seats available. Oversight will be provided through the treasurer’s office.
  • Assemblywoman Selena Torres-Fossett (D-Las Vegas), who chairs the Assembly Education Committee, questioned the proposal.
    • “I would just like to see that there’s support in closing that gap for all  students,” Torres-Fossett said. “If you have two students that can be transferred to a different school, that’s not going to address the actual issue.” 
    • In response, Cherry said there are proposals within the bill to address this concern, but this is an accountability measure. 

— Tabitha Mueller and Eric Neugeboren

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What we’re reading and writing

‘Beyond frustrating;’ Democrats criticize $335M deficit in Lombardo’s budget by Tabitha Mueller and Eric Neugeboren

The first legislative budget hearing of the year was a spicy one.

How Nevada's Democratic attorney general is preparing to take on the Trump administration by Gabby Birenbaum

Attorney General Aaron Ford has already joined a lawsuit to block Trump’s proposal to end birthright citizenship.

Lombardo’s 2025 State of the State address, annotated by Eric Neugeboren and Tabitha Mueller

Check out the context behind Lombardo’s remarks.

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Increasing health care access

We also heard the first details of Lombardo’s health care proposal on Tuesday, including cost estimates for expediting physician applications and splitting up the Department of Health and Human Services.

Some highlights:

• Officials estimated that Lombardo’s health care bill will cost the state $51.2 million.
  • Members of the governor’s office said they expect to receive more pharmacy rebates and federal matching funds by housing Medicaid, the Public Employees Benefits Program and the state insurance exchange under the proposed Nevada Health Authority. They said although that may not balance the budget itself, it will be a boon to the general fund.
• The proposal also includes $25 million in funding to expand health care in high-need areas.
• Lombardo’s budget also proposes allocating $1 million to expedite licensing applications submitted by physicians specializing in certain critical medical fields or from physicians operating in underserved communities.
  • As proposed, the Nevada Health Authority would have the highest amount of appropriations of any department (37.6 percent) in the state.
• Asked by Assemblywoman Tracy Brown-May (D-Las Vegas) about waitlists for certain services and service shutdowns within the Aging and Disabilities Services Division, Lombardo’s Deputy Chief of Staff Debi Reynolds said the existing budget does not fully fund increasing caseloads, but officials are requesting more funds. “[We are] aware that there’s additional need,” she said.

— Tabitha Mueller

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$250M for housing

Lombardo used his State of the State to announce plans to help develop $1 billion in attainable housing units in Nevada, supported by state dollars and the state infrastructure bank, low-interest loans and bonding capacity. 

Here’s what we learned in the budget meeting:

• The housing bill’s price tag is more than $250 million.
• It would create the Nevada Attainable Housing Fund. The state defines “attainable housing” as any project that is between 60 and 150 percent of the area median income. The fund will be available for the following:
  • Loans to projects qualifying for the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (serving households under 60 percent of the area median income)
  • Money for projects providing housing to extremely low-income households
  • Rental assistance programs
  • Acquiring land to develop attainable housing projects
  • Assist essential workers in purchasing homes
  • Incentives for local governments to increase housing supply.
• The legislation also will double the funding for the state’s homebuyer counseling program to $150,000 annually.

— Eric Neugeboren and Tabitha Mueller

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 Keeping Tabs

🚓 No $ for rehabilitative measures in crime bill — In a presentation about Lombardo’s priority bill to combat crime, Cherry said that there is no spending on rehabilitative measures. The comment was made after Sen. Rochelle Nguyen (D-Las Vegas) questioned whether the bill was “just punitive.”

• Context: Details have been sparse, but Lombardo said that it would include lowering the felony theft threshold (a proposal that went nowhere in 2023) and prohibiting the use of diversion courts for those committing crimes against children and the elderly. The governor’s staff indicated Tuesday the bill would cost about $9.6 million.

👶 Details on child care tax credit — Cherry said that Lombardo’s economic development bill would include $24 million in tax credits for the construction of child care facilities.

• Context: In Nevada, child care costs more than college for families. A 2023 report also indicates that every Nevada county is considered a child care desert and about three-fourths of children ages 0-5 don’t have access to licensed child care.

— Eric Neugeboren

Looking Ahead

• Wednesday, Jan. 22, at 8:30 a.m.: Budget presentations for the Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Department of Business and Industry, Office of the Military, Department of Corrections and the Department of Veterans Services.
• Thursday, Jan. 23, at 8:30 a.m.: Budget presentations for the Department of Education, Nevada System of Higher Education and Department of Public Safety.
• Monday, Jan. 27 at 8:30 a.m.: Budget presentations for all agencies within the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services.

Days until: 

• First day of session: 12
• Last day for bill introductions: 54
• First house passage deadline: 90
• Sine die: 131

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And to get you going into the week, a few social media posts that caught our eye: 

• Will The Indy be able to survive the next round of Super Bowl playoffs?
• So much sass in 140 characters.
• Nearly 33 percent of you are entirely wrong, and 4.3 percent of respondents need to sort out their priorities.

We’ll see you next week.