On the record: What would underdog Democrat Alexis Hill do as Nevada governor?

Alexis Hill faces long odds in her bid to win the Democratic primary for governor, but that hasn't stopped her from pummeling her main contender — Attorney General Aaron Ford (D) — on policy issues and rolling out detailed legislative proposals.

Hill, 42, is in her second term on the Washoe County Commission, which oversees the state's second-largest county. She chaired the commission from 2023 to 2025. 

Ford, 54, is Nevada's two-term attorney general and the former state Senate majority leader. He's the pick of Nevada's Reid Machine and is endorsed by all five Democrats in the state's congressional delegation and 33 state lawmakers. 

Hill has compared Ford to Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo and says she's running as a new type of Democratic leader on a commitment to economic change. 

She says if elected, she'll focus on supporting the working class and making billionaires pay their fair share. Her key policy proposals include freezing tax abatements for corporations, including for data centers, implementing universal pre-K and temporarily capping rent. 

She's been a harsh critic of Nevada's tax policies, writing on her website that the state's current system "isn't responsible governance." 

"We can do better, and we can still be one of the lowest-taxed states in the United States," she told News 4 Reno during a May interview. "In Nevada, you feel like you're being nickel-and-dimed every time you do anything. … We don't adequately distribute the taxes on people who actually have the capacity to pay, and that's the leadership that we need to bring on the governor's level."

Hill was born and raised in Nevada and received a graduate degree at UNR in public administration and public policy. She's worked in the public and private sectors and lives in Reno with her children and husband.

She's lagged behind Ford in public polls, fundraising and major endorsements. Endorsements for her bid include the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) and other longtime progressive leaders in the state.

But she maintains she has what it takes to win in Tuesday's primary.

"We've got to make sure we have elected officials that care about the individual voter and not just the machine," she said during a May town hall with voters. "Because the machine ain't winning."

Issues

Right to work

Nevada's long-standing "right-to-work" law prohibits labor unions and employers from requiring union membership for employment. Labor organizations are critical of such laws, arguing they stifle unions' abilities to bargain with employers and allow non-dues-paying workers to reap union-won benefits.

Hill has been a vocal critic of the state's right-to-work law, calling it "Right to Freeload" and pledging to end it.

She said she plans to collaborate with unions to dramatically improve worker opportunities. 

"That includes my Nevada Works program — inspired by the great [Works Progress Administration] efforts of the 1930s — to create apprenticeships and jobs and improve our state infrastructure," she said, referencing an initiative created under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. 

Data centers

Hill has made her stance on data centers central to her campaign, vowing to pause tax breaks for data centers and conduct more research on their effects on water and greenhouse gas emissions.

"Data centers don't need the subsidy," Hill previously said in an interview with The Indy. "Let's subsidize some things that make more sense for us."

Her comments come amid a nationwide reckoning on whether data centers are overconsuming power and water and whether the relatively low number of jobs they create are worth the incentives governments dish out to them. 

Hill argues she is the "only candidate for Nevada governor who is ready to fight side by side to end subsidies." Ford and Lombardo are more aligned on data center issues — both say they support the jobs they'll bring to the state but that safeguards need to be in place to ensure they don't raise water or energy costs for Nevadans. 

Hill has said she suspects the centers' tax abatements aren't penciling out, even though she supports their ultimate goal of creating more jobs (read The Indy's analysis on what is known about data center job creation). But she said there are better, more reliable ways the state should be supporting Nevadans with new jobs and improved public services. 

Childcare

Hill supports universal pre-K — a policy that was pushed by Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro (D-Las Vegas) during last year's legislative session but was dramatically pared back because of budgetary concerns. 

The plan would likely start with needs-based additional subsidies, with the goal of expanding eligibility to free pre-K for all 3- and 4-year-olds by 2028, with no income caps. The campaign acknowledged that there is already a shortage of program seats, and lawmakers will need to push to also consider licensing requirements and regulations for qualified home-based facilities to meet the need. The campaign noted that there is no set date by which they hope to have enough slots for all children, but the plan is to expand those slots as much as possible. 

She also supports expanding universal childcare to children of any age, saying she'll direct the state's superintendent of schools to develop a plan for a universal program by 2030. Families in Nevada pay among the highest childcare costs in the nation. 

The goal is to move toward a system that offers free childcare for all, but it would likely begin with need-based subsidies for families, the campaign said.

For example, Hill has said she receives a subsidy for childcare for her foster child, and she wants to see that type of program expanded to all families.

Hill has said funding for the childcare and pre-K programs will come from her tax reform plan.

K-12 education

Hill supports bringing Nevada's per-pupil funding to the national average. Despite a 2023 funding boost, Nevada's per-pupil funding for the 2024-2025 school year, about $14,000, is about $3,500 less than the national average, according to the latest state and federal data. 

Hill's website outlines plans to improve school funding through legislation that would reset property depreciation upon sale, ensuring properties are assessed at their actual value. She also proposes taxing corporate-owned properties at higher rates than owner-occupied properties. 

She said these reforms could bring $3 billion into K-12 education by 2030, more than the $2 billion that the Legislature-created Commission on School Funding has called for to raise Nevada's per-pupil funding up to or beyond the national average.

"This is not an extreme thing to want and to expect from your state," she told The Indy in April.

Past proposals to change the property tax formula have hit dead ends in the Legislature.

Tax policy

Hill says Nevada's tax policy is outdated and unfair, elevating billionaires' interests over working-class Nevadans' needs. As governor, she said she will dramatically reshape the state's tax policies, from new tax incentives for small businesses to a pause on corporate abatements to a gaming tax rate increase. 

Her tax reform plan includes raising rates on corporate homeowners, taxing commercial electric vehicles with funds going toward road improvements, and enacting a capital-gains excise tax for corporations.

Hill also wants to reduce taxes on state businesses and provide state businesses the same tax exemptions that flow to large corporations, while also raising the state's gaming tax rate, which at 6.75 percent is the lowest nationwide. She told The Indy she doesn't have a specific number for the gaming tax in mind, but that she would work to bring gaming companies to the table on any potential change.

She will pause all tax abatements for corporations and says that while she wants to generate new jobs for Nevadans, she's suspicious of abatements' efficacy at job creation. 

Hill previously spoke out against the proposed expansion of tax credits for film companies that narrowly died in the Legislature last year. She introduced an online petition to block the effort, and told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in October that the proposal was "not a sustainable way of doing business." 

Economy

Hill says she wants to diversify Nevada's economy — which is overwhelmingly reliant on the gaming and hospitality industries — and support small businesses by providing them additional emergency loans via the State Infrastructure Bank.

She also wants to sign an executive order requiring corporations that receive tax abatements or "state investments" pay a minimum wage of $15 an hour. However, she emphasizes in her economic policy plan that this minimum wage increase won't apply to small businesses. 

Under current law, companies can qualify for full or partial tax abatement packages depending on how much they pay of the statewide average wage.

Housing

Hill writes on her website that she wants an immediate temporary freeze on rent increases until the state Legislature "addresses rent caps in a meaningful way" and on insurance premiums, although she doesn't clarify on her website what insurance premiums she's targeting. As governor she hopes to create a public option for car insurance premiums. 

The issue, she has said, would then be addressed in the first legislative session she oversaw as governor.

She has said she will also direct the Nevada Department of Taxation, Nevada Tax Commission and State Board of Equalization to review — and potentially raise — the taxes on housing owned by corporations and hedge funds.

Her housing plan also includes requiring properties to be reassessed for depreciation when they are sold. Under current law, Nevada buyers inherit the property tax rates of the prior owner, so buyers inherit rates that have been lowered by depreciation factors. In some other U.S. states, property tax rates reset when homes are sold, which benefits local governments' tax revenues but means higher rates for the new owner.

Energy and climate

Part of Hill's energy and climate plan involves investing $100 million in community-funded solar infrastructure and requiring that a quarter of the jobs be earmarked for veterans. The proposal, she has said, would come during the first session she oversaw as governor.

She also wants to use an executive order to establish an office of climate oversight within the Governor's Office of Economic Development to focus on clean energy development. 

Hill said she is opposed to NV Energy's controversial daily demand charge, which she says hurts solar users. She said she wants to reform energy laws to support solar development.

Immigration

On immigration policy, Hill says she will rescind the 287(g) agreement that some local governments have entered into with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and ban ICE agents from all state-owned property, including parks, schools and universities, unless agents have a judicial warrant. 

Elections

Hill — who touts her experience at overseeing and certifying elections as a commissioner — says she would push for a constitutional amendment to protect mail-in voting and prohibit members of Nevada's National Guard from being at voting locations.

Hill has also been a vocal opponent of the state's closed primary system, which prevents Nevadans registered as nonpartisan from voting in races with partisan primaries. She says it blocks voters who already feel disillusioned with politics from expressing their preferences and says that as governor she'll work with the Legislature to allow non-partisan voters to vote in either party's primaries.