Local governments in Nevada once again broke the record for lobbying expenses during this year’s legislative session, pouring nearly $5.2 million into their efforts to influence public policy.

The expenses disclosed in a report from the Nevada Department of Taxation, reflects the continued prominence of local governments in Nevada’s legislative process. Lobbyists — a category that includes employees of local governments and contracted, professional lobbying firms — frequently meet with lawmakers and testify on bills that would affect these governments’ operations, and their expenses are often related to salaries and travel costs.

The 2025 data marks a 10 percent increase in spending from the 2023 legislative session, which also set a record for local government lobbyist expenses. For the first time since at least 2005, county governments spent more on lobbying than city governments, as Clark and Washoe government spending increased by more than $225,000 this year while most city governments spent less than two years ago.

One exception was the City of Reno, which more than doubled its lobbying activity as it worked on proposals to provide funding for rental assistance and tweak the state’s property tax structure to bolster education funding. 

Unsurprisingly, local governments in Clark and Washoe counties (which hold nearly 90 percent of the state’s population) made up close to 90 percent of total lobbying expenses tracked in the report. 

However, the per capita lobbying expenses — calculated by dividing a public body’s expenses by the number of people it represents — were highest in rural areas, where local governments spent an outsized amount to lobby given their small size.

Take Storey County, for example. Local governments in the roughly 4,000-person county east of Reno spent more than $120,000 on lobbying in 2025, more than two-thirds of which came from the county government.

The county plays an important role in Nevada because it houses the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, a sprawling complex that hosts major companies such as Tesla and Redwood Materials.

This year, the county sponsored SB69, which modifies the tax abatement processes for high-dollar projects by requiring recipients to chip into public service costs. The bill was passed with bipartisan support and signed into law by Gov. Joe Lombardo.

County Manager Austin Osborne said in an interview that the county was subjected to a “hostile takeover” by the Legislature in recent years, such as the ill-fated “Innovation Zones” proposal.

“We had a principal goal in 2025 to be proactive instead of reactive to whatever is gonna come at us in the session," Osborne said.

The spending reflects a nationwide increase in local governments’ lobbying efforts, said Jennifer Jensen, a political science professor at Lehigh University who has studied intergovernmental relations.

Jensen said local governments often hire lobbyists with experience navigating state legislatures so that they can “cut through the noise,” and that their operations are similar to businesses that also do lobbying.

“They’re asking for particular benefits or exceptions that can be granted by the state government,” Jensen said. “And that’s the same sort of thing that private companies or individual groups, citizen groups do as well.”

Read below to learn more about what proposals the local governments lobbied for and against. All bills passed unless noted.