How big an impact would film tax bill make on Nevada pre-K?
In today’s edition:
- How many preschoolers would film tax bill help?
- Gun companies say they face bank discrimination
- Teamsters plot revenge for bill death
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From the Capital Bureau Chief:
One of the most significant changes to Assm. Sandra Jauregui’s (D-Las Vegas) film tax credit measure, AB238, is an amendment to establish a district over the studio site to funnel revenue from county-specific sources, including local property, sales and lodging taxes, for pre-K programs in Clark County.
The latest projections provided by proponents indicate that the film tax credits are expected to generate an average of nearly $12 million annually for pre-K programs in the county, though proponents say that these numbers likely underestimate the actual amount.
You can view the spreadsheet showing the source of that funding and its allocation here.
The biggest question, however, is how many pre-K students this money would support.
With an estimated cost of approximately $9,300 per seat (based on the testimony from Clark County Education Association Executive Director John Vellardita), that $12 million would fund approximately 1,290 seats — or nearly 5 percent of the estimated 27,000 4- and 5-year-olds in Clark County who are eligible for pre-K.
However, legislative sources said fiscal staff estimated that (based on the analysis shared at the weekend hearing), the amount raised for pre-K would be $119 million over 17 years, or approximately $7 million per year — which, using the same math, would fund about 752 seats annually (nearly 2.8 percent of the pre-K population).
For context, in 2025, the state funded 2,349 seats of the 16,589 Nevada Department of Education-supported pre-K seats across the state.
As always, please send us your questions, thoughts and suggestions. You can reach me at [email protected].
Gun group (what?) backs Yeager’s surprisingly controversial banking bill
Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas) is proposing a measure (AB500) to create a new type of payments bank in Nevada that aims to cut out the middlemen of financial transactions.
The bill, passed out of the Assembly Committee on Ways and Means on Tuesday with bipartisan support, creates the Nevada Payments Bank, which would act differently from other banks in that it would not provide loans but would act as a payment processor, allowing companies to seek direct access to payment systems such as ACH and FedWire.
In the past week, a key opponent and unlikely supporter of the proposal have emerged.
Here’s what to know.
- The Nevada Firearms Coalition PAC is supporting the measure on the grounds that it could prevent banks from refusing to support gun businesses.
- In a letter that has circulated around the Legislature in recent days, the PAC said “a coalition of gun shops, ranges, manufacturers, or pro-2A investors could launch their own bank — one that serves the firearms industry without fear of political retaliation.”
- The PAC has not expressed its support during public bill hearings, but President Randy Mackie confirmed that the group has had banking issues.
- “We have personal experience with debanking and prejudice against gun rights and gun groups,” Mackie told The Indy.
- It’s an unlikely alliance considering that Democrats are rarely on the same side of an issue as gun rights organizations — Yeager said he wasn’t aware that the group was supporting the bill.
- Meanwhile, the Nevada Financial Institutions Division (FID) is opposing the bill. In an opposition document obtained by The Indy, the division said that it does not have sufficient capacity to monitor a complex payments bank and that it deviates from federal banking regulations, among other concerns.
- But the Retail Association of Nevada strongly disagreed with these characterizations and said there is “a fundamental disagreement” about the bill in a letter.
— Eric Neugeboren
What we’re reading and writing
Nevada nonpartisans could vote in party primaries under bill brought by top lawmaker by Eric Neugeboren
Top Dem didn’t like Question 3, but likes opening up party primaries to nonpartisans.
State-commissioned analyses: Nevada film tax credit expansion likely not sustainable by Tabitha Mueller and Eric Neugeboren
Ruh-roh.
Bill spotlight: Preserving benefits for foster children
A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the Senate and Assembly recently passed SB284, a measure sponsored by Sen. Nicole Cannizzaro (D-Las Vegas) to ensure foster children receive federal benefits.
Children’s advocacy organizations have lauded the bill as a way to ensure that federal funds directly benefit the children they are supposed to go to, instead of backfilling welfare agencies’ budgets.
Here’s what you need to know:
- Under existing law, federal benefits for youth in foster care go into a general trust fund account. For children in Washoe and Clark counties, welfare agencies do not have to inform children that benefits may be available to them and can reimburse themselves for funds spent on a child or for child welfare services. For foster youth in rural counties, the state must reimburse itself for the cost of foster care for a child.
- SB284 would require child welfare agencies to inform children of their eligibility for the funds, apply for federal benefits on behalf of eligible children, manage those benefits in dedicated accounts and offer financial counseling to children who are 14 or older.
- Advocates say foster youth are going without health care and mental health care treatments because they can’t afford it, and the legislation ensures that foster youth receive the money they are entitled to under federal law.
- “This is really helpful for foster youth, especially during their transition age when they are going to need some type of boost, whether it's housing or investing in employment opportunities or higher education,” said Carissa Pearce, the government affairs manager for the Children’s Advocacy Alliance. “Especially because they don’t have parents who can help them navigate exiting the system.”
- Pearce said advocates have worked with Clark and Washoe counties to ensure their budgets reflect the changes passed by lawmakers and Gov. Joe Lombardo’s budget accounted for the policy change.
- “Budgets reflect values,” she said. “We would love to just thank the governor for … recognizing that this is an important issue for foster youth.”
— Tabitha Mueller
Keeping Tabs
😡 Teamsters plot revenge for bill death — Teamsters Local 631 is fuming over the death of SB395, a proposal requiring a human operator for certain self-driving trucks that the union backed for its potential to protect jobs.
In an interview, Tommy Blitsch, the union’s business manager, blamed the bill’s demise at Friday’s second house passage deadline on tech companies — Tesla and a consortium of autonomous vehicle groups opposed the bill — as well as Assembly leaders. He also pledged that the proposal would play a role in the union’s future political activity.
“The fish always stinks from the head,” Blitsch said. “I think that the working class is lacking leadership in that state Assembly. We know that there were a lot of people who wanted to vote in favor of this on the Assembly side.”
In an interview, Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas) said that there were not enough votes to pass the proposal, and that “everyone in this building's disappointed at some point.”
💰😭Prisons face more budget woes — The Nevada Department of Corrections (NDOC) has scratched an additional budget request of about $6.5 million related to personnel costs and “inmate driven expenses,” and is now asking for more than $40 million in general funds instead. The request is intended to help cover a $53 million shortfall that was revealed to legislators in February. Asked during a Senate Finance Committee hearing Monday why the amendment was made so late in the session, NDOC representatives said they informed the governor’s office about the additional need for funds months ago.
🏠Sen. Ira Hansen asked by Lombardo to vote no on housing bill — Sen. Dina Neal’s (D-North Las Vegas) SB391, which would have capped the annual number of homes corporate buyers can purchase, failed to meet the required two-thirds support needed to pass out of the Senate on Tuesday. All Republican senators voted against the bill, including Sen. Ira Hansen (R-Sparks), who initially voiced support for the measure but said he was asked by the governor to vote against it.
- “The American dream, which is to own a home, is being taken away from the citizens of Nevada,” Hansen said during a floor speech.
- Hansen said that he hopes some of the “better elements” of Neal’s bill will be incorporated into Gov. Joe Lombardo’s housing bill, which would allocate millions in state funds toward affordable housing projects.
🧐 Legislative pay commission in the cards for the next session? — After AJR7, which would have created a commission to authorize changes to the salaries of state elected officials, died in the Senate last week, bill sponsor Assm. Howard Watts (D-Las Vegas) said that he hopes to bring a similar measure next session. Watts told The Nevada Independent that he “decided not to move forward with it” after it failed to receive sufficient support.
- “The current system that we have is broken,” Watts said. “So I am going to continue to talk with my colleagues and stakeholders.”
- A spokesperson for the Nevada Senate Democratic Caucus also said that measure did not receive enough support.
👀 Will legislators fund union contracts? — Legislators will have to decide in the coming days whether they can fund more than $320 million in pay negotiated in contracts with state worker unions. The appropriations, proposed in AB596 (which received its first hearing on Tuesday), would include 3 percent raises for thousands of state employees, including state police officers. But the raises were not included in the governor’s recommended budget, and the contracts come at a time when lawmakers are focused on maintaining existing services.
Assm. Daniele Monroe-Moreno (D-North Las Vegas) told The Indy that the Legislature is not in a position to help state workers as much as they did two years ago (when it passed the largest raises in decades), “but we’re going to do our best.”
👋More Opportunity Scholarship?? — Gov. Joe Lombardo's office is bringing forward a last-minute bill to expand the state’s Opportunity Scholarship program — potentially reigniting a debate over school choice that has mostly gone quiet this session. AB599, introduced Tuesday, would increase the annual cap on tax credits available to businesses that donate to scholarship organizations, raising the total amount of credits to nearly $20 million over the next biennium. It would also require schools enrolling scholarship students to submit annual academic progress reports and would allow the Department of Education to disqualify noncompliant schools.
- “Nevada families deserve a voice and choice in education,”Lombardo’s office said in a statement.
- However, Democrats have said this session that they are not interested in expanding the program. During an IndyTalks event this month, Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro (D-Las Vegas) added that there is not enough support in her caucus to expand the initiative.
— Eric Neugeboren, Isabella Aldrete
Looking Ahead
Days until:
- Sine die: 6
And to ease you into the weekend, a few social media posts that caught our eye:
- X: Tis the season.
- Instagram: Gotta eat while you can …
- X: Pobody’s nerfect.
We’ll see you Friday.