The winners and losers of the Nevada Legislature’s first major deadline
In today’s edition:
- Evolving film tax bill may support more than just film
- Who were the winners and losers on deadline day?
- SOS has a backlog of business license investigations
From the Capital Bureau Chief:
As Friday's committee deadline came and went, I overheard someone explain, "What happened is, a bunch of bills got killed because we don't have any money." And honestly? That's the vibe in Carson City.
The state budget is (likely) busted, federal funds are uncertain and everyone in the building is nervously eyeing the May 1 Economic Forum. If the outlook is as grim as some think, we might see lawmakers digging through fourth-floor couch cushions to keep the lights on.
The influx of federal funding from the COVID-19 pandemic gave Nevada more dollars to allocate than it has had historically, but that’s at an end. The financial issues have been further exacerbated by cuts made by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and other possible budget cuts coming down the pipe.
As Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas) recently told The Nevada Independent, “The theme of this session has been there’s not a lot of money period, so every dollar that gets cut is really going to hurt, really going to impact folks.”
Ambition is expensive, and this session? Nobody can afford it.
And on an unrelated note, a warm welcome back to Sen. Dina Neal (D-North Las Vegas) after her health leave and best wishes for the rest of the session. It’s nice to have you back in the building!
As always, please send us your questions, thoughts and suggestions. You can reach me at [email protected].
Winners and losers of deadline day
The data is out — Democrats dominated deadline day.
A Nevada Independent analysis of all the bills that survived (about 630) and died (about 300) after the dust settled on Friday showed that Democratic lawmakers had a much higher share of their bills advance.
Of the 220 nonexempt bills with a Republican as the primary sponsor, about 60 percent failed to meet Friday’s first committee passage deadline. Meanwhile, more than 80 percent of nonexempt bills sponsored by a Democrat survived past Friday’s deadline. (Bills can be exempted from legislative deadlines, usually if they have a financial impact.)
Democratic lawmakers, by virtue of controlling both chambers, have final say over which bills receive a hearing, and then which ones ultimately are put up for a committee vote. A similar percentage of GOP-led bills died at the first committee deadline in 2023.
The number of bill draft requests allotted to each legislator depends on the chamber, and whether they were newly elected, as well as if they hold a leadership position. For example, incumbent senators can submit up to 20 bill draft requests, while incumbent assemblymembers can submit 10.
Of the Legislature’s 40 Democratic members, only one had more of their bills miss the deadline than pass: Assm. Selena La Rue Hatch (D-Reno), though she scored a win when her bill to expand paid family leave passed out of committee.
Yeager had a total of 17 bills pass out of committee, more than any other legislator, followed by four Democratic senators who each had 15 of their bills pass out of committee.
Across the aisle, only seven of the 20 GOP lawmakers saw a majority of their bills pass out of committee, led by Assm. Melissa Hardy (R-Henderson), who had six of her bills pass.
Sen. Carrie Buck (R-Henderson) was the only legislator to not have a single bill pass, as all 20 of the bills where she was the primary sponsor failed to pass committee. Buck also saw all of her bills die at the first committee deadline in 2023.
— Eric Neugeboren
What we’re reading and writing
Got junk? Nevada lawmakers want to make it easier to remove abandoned vehicles by Lucia Starbuck, KUNR Public Radio
Taking on big junk.
With families getting priced out, NV legislators tackle corporate ownership of housing market by April Corbin Girnus, Nevada Current
Investors own about 15 percent of homes in the city of Las Vegas (and that’s only projected to increase).
Is the film tax bill still a film tax bill?
Sen. Roberta Lange's (D-Las Vegas) film tax expansion measure, SB220, was finally heard last week and had some significant additions that the senator described as making it “no longer just a film bill.”
An amendment added to the bill Thursday would establish the Creative Technology Initiative — a 501(c)3 nonprofit supporting a university-affiliated research center focused on aerospace, health care, video game development, artificial intelligence, virtual and extended reality, drones and related technologies.
Lange said the research center would be through the Department of Defense and could increase federal funding in the state, build research capacity and develop “high-tech business.”
Reminder: This is the second film tax credit bill making its way through the legislative process. Both measures passed out of their first committee “without recommendation,” a rare occurrence that allows bills to move forward in the legislative process without an endorsement.
Lange’s bill is backed by Birtcher Development and the film and studio brokerage firm MBS Group. Birtcher is proposing to build the project and MBS Group would manage, operate and oversee the films and studio services at the site. Assm. Sandra Jauregui (D-Las Vegas) is bringing the other measure, AB238, which is supported by developer Howard Hughes Holdings Inc. and production studios Warner Brothers Discovery and Sony Pictures Entertainment.
The Nevada Current had a good laydown of the changes to the bill, but we’ll pull out the highlights below:
- The measure proposes $1.6 billion in subsidies over the next 18 years for the construction and operation of a 34-acre film and production facility and yet-to-be-built studio in Southern Nevada at the Harry Reid Research and Technology Park on a plot of land owned by UNLV.
- Specifically, the state’s film tax credit program would increase from $10 million annually to $98 million for the program's first three years (starting with $8 million the first year and $78 million by year three) and then $98 million annually for the following 15 years.
- Context: Initially, Lange’s measure proposed increasing the program from $10 million to $15 million annually, an increase that would end after 15 years, and setting aside $83 million for annual transferable tax credits for productions. To receive the investment, there’s a pledge of $9.8 billion in production spending and workforce development. The campus would include a media and technology lab available to UNLV, College of Southern Nevada and Nevada State University.
- Proponents estimated that for every $1 in tax credits, the total Nevada return on investment would be $1.02 ($0.38 for onsite activities, $0.09 for screen-related tourism and $0.55 for the technology initiative).
- Studies of similar film tax credit programs in other states have resulted in marginal at best economic results.
- A 2024 analysis of the state’s film tax credit program by the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development found that tax credits given to 12 productions during the 2024 fiscal year generated about $15 in economic impact per tax credit dollar. Economic impact, which is a way to measure the return on investment, accounts for direct spending, the indirect spending of vendors in the economy and the “induced” impact of people spending wages in the economy.
- The Creative Technology Initiative discussed in the amendment would have access to a second lab for entertainment and non-entertainment purposes.
- Lange described the proposal as a public-private partnership that would become a “long-term public asset” that wouldn’t “just benefit a single company.” She did not discuss the competing film tax proposal making its way through the Assembly.
- “We will be making movies. We will be making shows. But that's just the beginning,” Lange said.
— Tabitha Mueller
Keeping Tabs
✍️ SOS has investigation backlog — The secretary of state’s office has a backlog of 91 investigations in its division to ensure businesses are complying with state rules and requirements, according to a budget hearing held on Saturday. The office has requested two additional investigator positions, which it anticipates will allow it to fill the backlog within three months. There are hundreds of thousands of registered businesses in the state.
🐾 Death is arbitrary — One casualty of deadline day was AB381, sponsored by Assm. Melissa Hardy (R-Henderson). However, AB381 is living proof bills can resurrect after deadline day. The bill was dubbed Reba’s Law after an English bulldog that died after being found inside a taped packing container during Las Vegas’s extreme heat. AB381 would increase animal cruelty penalties, expanding the penalty from one to four years in prison to one to 10 years in prison. But a committee vote was held in the Assembly Committee of Judiciary last minute on Monday afternoon.
Dog advocacy groups and rescue foundations took to social media, encouraging their followers to email Assm. Brittney Miller (D-Las Vegas) who is the chair of Judiciary, and Assm. Elaine Marzola (D-Henderson), who is the vice chair. One advocacy group wrote they would be “working to [unseat] anyone who is responsible for this bill’s death.”
Miller told The Nevada Independent that by Friday, there weren’t enough internal votes from the judiciary committee to pass AB381 due to amendments still being processed.
“I told [the assemblymembers] that just because we have a deadline, doesn’t mean that the concept won’t go forward,” Miller said.
— Eric Neugeboren, Lizzie Ramirez
Looking Ahead
- Throughout the week: Lots of floor sessions as lawmakers work to get bills out of their first house by April 22.
Days until:
- First house passage deadline: 8
- Second committee passage deadline: 32
- Sine die: 49
And to get you going into the week, a few social media posts that caught our eye:
- X: Hills to die on.
- X: There’s a Disney song for every occasion.
- X: Evergreen.
We’ll see you Thursday.