Studios put out the red carpet for Nevada lawmakers ahead of tax credit expansion debate
In today’s edition:
- The latest on the film tax credit bill
- Putting the kibosh on daylight saving time?
- No one wants to talk about the state lottery
From the Capital Bureau Chief:
Nearly two years after a planned expansion of film tax credits in Nevada failed, two more film tax bills are officially here!
Sen. Roberta Lange (D-Las Vegas) and Assm. Sandra Jauregui (D-Las Vegas) have each indicated they’ll need to merge their separate bills if they hope to get one across the finish line.
Jauregui’s proposal (AB238) is officially scheduled for a hearing in the Assembly Committee on Revenue on Thursday at 4 p.m. There’s no hearing yet scheduled for Lange’s bill.
Here’s the state of play on all things film tax credit:
- Sony Pictures Entertainment and Howard Hughes Holdings Inc. have partnered with Jauregui, while Birtcher Development and Manhattan Beach Studios have been working with Lange. Warner Bros. Discovery has not announced a formal partnership, but may still be involved.
- Ahead of Thursday’s hearing, lobbyists have been out in full force.
- As of Monday, Howard Hughes has nine lobbyists registered with the Legislative Counsel Bureau, Sony has two, Birtcher has three (including Brandon Birtcher) and a group called Warner Media has two.
- Brandon Birtcher, co-owner and CEO of Birtcher, was also in the Legislature on Friday.
- As The Boss™ reported, there’s an event Wednesday evening in Carson City hosted by Sony and Howard Hughes that invites attendees to “an evening where innovation meets imagination.”
- Gov. Joe Lombardo is publicly uncommitted on any expansion of film tax credits.
- As the potential for federal cuts looms, onlookers say that proponents of the measure will need to show compelling financial data to get it passed.
- One open question is why Lange and Jauregui didn’t just present one combined bill.
- The answer likely lies in the amount of money available for the film tax credit expansion.
- In 2023, Howard Hughes and Birtcher had partnered on a single bill (along with a silent partner, Sony Pictures) that asked for up to $190 million in annual tax credits over a decade for two separate studio projects.
- The 2023 bill died over cost concerns, leading the two developers to part ways and, two years later, seek separate bills with different movie studio partners and separate project and financial proposals.
- In early February, the Southern Nevada Building Trades Unions announced it had entered into a project labor agreement with Summerlin Studios, renewing a similar expired partnership. The announcement ahead of the bills dropping could have also been designed to sway lawmakers toward Jauregui’s measure.
- Although some building unions are supportive, critics have pointed out that Sony and Warner Brothers have had a history of anti-union activity.
- Hanging over everything: California is proposing to more than double its film tax credit program to $750 million in annual credits.
As always, please send us your questions and suggestions. You can reach me at [email protected].
Daylight saving no more?
Nevada could stay on Pacific Standard Time year-round instead of advancing the clock each spring if lawmakers pass AB81. The bill’s sponsor, Assm. Selena La Rue Hatch (D-Reno), said she hasn’t heard any “formal opposition” against the measure.
Here’s a few key details from the bill’s first hearing on Monday:
- Legislation to institute year-round Pacific Standard Time has been introduced in Nevada before, but many of those bills were tied to other states, such as 2021’s SB153, which would have only allowed Nevada to change its clocks if California did.
- La Rue Hatch said that her bill was the “only option” for enacting the change.
- “We are the Nevada Legislature, and I don't think we can wait on anybody else to do what's right for our constituents,” she told the Assembly Committee on Government Affairs on Monday.
- Doctors and medical professionals have said permanent standard time is tied to better health outcomes and aligned better with human circadian rhythms.
- “This bill is a way for us to immediately have positive impacts on our public health without us having to spend any money,” La Rue Hatch said.
- Since 1966, it has been against federal law to enact permanent daylight saving time but states can enact permanent standard time if they lie entirely within a time zone.
- Nevada is in the Pacific time zone, but several rural communities — most notably West Wendover on the Utah border — use Mountain Time.
- Arizona and Hawaii currently have year-round standard time. California voters also approved it via a 2018 ballot measure, but are waiting for state lawmakers to pass the required legislation.
- If passed, AB81 would become effective on July 1, 2025, but a proposed amendment would change that to Jan. 1, 2026.
— Isabella Aldrete
What we’re reading and writing
Lombardo Promise Tracker: What pledges has the governor kept in his first two years? By The Nevada Independent staff
To see a complete and updated list of promises, head to our full Lombardo Promise Tracker.
It’s normal to be a renter in Nevada. But in the state legislature? Not so much. The Nevada Current, April Corbin Girnus
The Current found at least 90 percent of the 63 members of the Legislature are homeowners, and at least 58 percent own additional real estate, most of them rental units.
Assembly speaker not ready to show his lottery hand
As a poker player, Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas), knows how to slow play a hand.
He’s doing that with AJR5, a proposed constitutional amendment that would remove a 159-year-old prohibition on Nevada operating a lottery.
Here’s what we know:
- The resolution easily passed in both legislative chambers in 2023, but it requires a second approval before it can be sent to Nevada voters in 2026. Culinary Workers Union Local 226 supports AJR5 but Nevada’s resort industry opposes the bill.
- The resolution’s 2023 sponsor, Assm. Cameron “C.H.” Miller (D-Las Vegas) left the Legislature to run (unsuccessfully) for Las Vegas City Council in 2024.
- In a media briefing last week in Carson City, Yeager said, “I don't want to set up a program that doesn't really make the state any money. That's not good.”
- Yeager, who voted in favor of AJR5 two years ago, said he wants to know more about what the lottery might entail, such as selling scratch-off cards through convenience stores or other outlets. He was more interested in how Nevada could get involved in a multistate lottery, such as Powerball or Mega Millions, which might keep the money Nevadans are spending on lottery tickets in California and Arizona within the state.
- He’s also concerned with the costs of regulating the lottery.
- “You're either going to set up a new agency or you're going to have to put it in with the [Gaming Control Board],” he said. “I don't know if that makes sense.”
- Yeager added, “Until I have that information, I don't think I can make a determination about it and how we want to move forward on [AJR5].”
– Howard Stutz
Keeping Tabs
🍽️ Universal free school meal bill is back — Assms. Sandra Jauregui (D-Las Vegas) and Shea Backus (D-Las Vegas) last week introduced AB268, an effort to revive a pandemic-era universal free school meal program. The bill would appropriate $43 million to the Department of Agriculture in each of the next two fiscal years to run the program.
- Context: Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoed similar legislation in the 2023 session, saying in his veto message that it should be addressed at a district level and would contribute to food waste. On the heels of Democrats’ announcement last year that they would bring back the legislation, the governor condemned “partisan attacks” over free school meals and said existing state programs ensure “every student in need can receive free school meals.”
🎤 Lombardo names new press secretary — Josh Meny, a former reporter and anchor for KTVN, is joining Lombardo’s office as a press secretary.
🚗The DMV “infamous housekeeping bill” — Nevadans filled a hearing room to overflowing on Thursday to protest a bill (AB20) from the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles related to imprinting codes on driver’s licenses to indicate if a person has a certain medical condition.
- Opponents raised fears about the agency collecting private medical data, but according to Sean Sever, deputy administrator at the DMV, putting medical codes on IDs isn’t “something new” and has been done since the 2000s.
- In 2023, lawmakers unanimously passed SB362, which allowed the DMV to create and put a symbol on the front of agency-issued ID cards indicating that a person had a medical condition. DMV officials said that legislative legal staff told them this preempted the practice of printing medical codes on the back of licenses, so AB20 was an attempt to fix that.
- Sever said adding the medical code is optional and “it’s a benefit to alert [first responders] if you have a certain condition you want them to know about.” He also said the medical code will be numerical and only first responders have access to what those codes mean.
💲Improving credit scores by reporting rent payments? — Treasurer Zach Conine presented a measure last week to help renters improve their credit scores by requiring landlords with more than 15 units to report to at least one consumer reporting agency about their tenants’ consistent payments. The legislation stipulates renters must opt in.
- Read more: KUNR’s Lucia Starbuck dives into the measure.
👀Assembly Republican Caucus has a new chief of staff — The Assembly Republican Caucus hired Jack St. Martin as its new chief of staff, replacing Kevin Magee. St. Martin has previously worked in conservative voter registration campaigns, for Americans for Prosperity, and as former Lt. Gov. Mark Hutchison's chief of staff.
— Lizzie Ramirez, Eric Neugeboren and Tabitha Mueller
Looking Ahead
- Wednesday, Feb. 26, at 4 p.m.: The Assembly and Senate are holding a joint health and human services meeting to discuss the potential effect of proposed congressional cuts to Medicaid funding.
- Thursday, Feb. 27, at 6 p.m.: The Guinn Center’s annual event focused on effective lawmaking is at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno.
Days until:
- Last day for bill introductions: 28
- First house passage deadline: 57
- Sine die: 98
And to get you going into the week, a few social media posts that caught our eye:
- X: I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.
- BSky: Oh, the places you’ll go.
- Instagram: News you can use.
We’ll see you Thursday.