10 issues to watch during Nevada’s 2025 legislative session
Monday marks the start of Nevada’s 83rd legislative session, the biennial 120-day tradition that will kick off in Carson City and see hundreds of proposed laws debated, amended, voted on and potentially signed into law.
Once again, education funding and the competing policy priorities of legislative Democrats (who hold solid majorities in both legislative chambers) and Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo are expected to take center stage.
Myriad other bills on issues including housing, criminal justice and immigrant communities will be introduced and debated during the coming months.
The Nevada Independent will be tracking key pieces of legislation and policy debates through our Nevada Policy Tracker. It’s our attempt to cut through all the noise of the session and present a concise summary of what observers see as the most significant actions lawmakers have taken this cycle on 10 key policy areas.
Scroll through the story below for a quick summary of what are shaping up to be the most interesting storylines this year.
As the session progresses, our tracker will be updated to reflect the evolution of policy discussions, while this story will remain the same.
Economic development and taxes
Education
Continuing 2023 raises for educators scheduled to sunset in June is a top priority for Lombardo and Democratic legislative leaders.
Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro (D-Las Vegas) proposed renewing the $250 matching fund for educator raises for another two-year budget cycle. But Lombardo, a Republican, wants to go a step further by making the raises permanent while also extending raises to charter school teachers and support staff, who were previously excluded from the 2023 bill. In addition, Lombardo suggested bonuses, subject to funding availability, for high-performing teachers and administrators.
Lombardo has also proposed increasing and making permanent transportation funding for charter schools.
The governor and legislative leaders are also focused on early education. Lombardo has proposed allocating $140 million to expand the state’s pre-K program. Cannizzaro has proposed making pre-K available to all 4-year-olds. The state pre-K program is currently limited to 4-year-olds from families with an income below 200 percent of the poverty level.
School choice is expected to be another hot button topic this session. Lombardo has called for an expansion of open enrollment policies and transportation support to allow students to move outside of the school they are zoned for.
On the higher education front, university staff are pushing the Legislature to fully cover cost-of-living raises, while unionized graduate students and some Democratic lawmakers are considering pursuing legislation that would enforce collective bargaining rights and force the Nevada System of Higher Education to negotiate with them.
— Rocio Hernandez
Health care
At least 75 bill draft requests surrounding health care, seven of which relate to mental health, have been submitted ahead of the legislative session.
On the top of the list: Lawmakers will weigh in on the governor’s proposed split of the Department of Health and Human Services — the state’s second-largest agency — and consider legislation to shorten the time frame for “prior authorization,” when an insurance plan requires approval for specific treatments or prescriptions, from 20 business days to five and, in emergencies, two business days.
In a state that has ranked last for children’s behavioral health outcomes for the past seven years, lawmakers will also consider creating an Office of Mental Health, improving care coordination for youth by restructuring state agencies and expanding the number of health care providers through more spending on graduate medical education as well as streamlining licensure processes.
Another pending issue: People with disabilities have been unable to receive certain supportive services because of a budget shortfall, leading advocates to push for adequate funding.
Democrats also want to curb rising health care costs for families, vowing to bring back a measure to cap the price of certain drugs that Lombardo vetoed in 2023.
Other proposals include enacting a physician assistant and nurse licensure compact to attract out-of-state professionals, expanding health care services in rural communities through telehealth and protecting reproductive rights providers by allowing them to hide their addresses.
— Tabitha Mueller
Housing
In addition to petitioning the federal government for more land, Lombardo laid out a plan to address the state’s housing crisis by streamlining permitting processes and creating pathways to homeownership for first responders, teachers and nurses. He also wants to establish $1 billion in new attainable housing units — those affordable to people with middle incomes — across the state, supported by the state infrastructure bank, low-interest loans and bonding capacity.
While legislative Democrats have said access to land is part of the problem, they want to prioritize tenants' rights, including bringing back a bill to implement rent caps for seniors or those living on Social Security income as well as a measure Lombardo vetoed in 2023 to change the state’s unique summary eviction process, which requires tenants make the first filing in an eviction legal proceeding. Lombardo said he is open to it.
Legislators will also consider measures to outlaw the purchase of more than 100 homes in a calendar year to crack down on corporate purchases of homes, increase funding for the state’s homebuyer counseling program and require certain landlords to report a record of consistently on-time rent payments made by a tenant to at least one consumer reporting agency.
The Nevada Conservation League has urged officials to not pit public lands against housing. Housing advocates have reiterated the need to make housing more affordable, increase supportive services for those who need them, mandate more transparency around rental fees and focus on in-fill development.
— Tabitha Mueller
Criminal justice
Progressive and conservative policy makers remain divided on criminal justice reform as overdose deaths are up and violent crime has dipped across the state.
During his State of the State address, Lombardo proposed reducing the dollar amount at which a theft is considered a felony, increasing penalties for repeat offenders and lowering the drug quantity threshold required to trigger drug trafficking charges.
Lombardo also proposed prohibiting the use of diversion courts for people who commit crimes against children and the elderly. These programs allow defendants to avoid jail time and a criminal record by completing a treatment program.
It comes just two years after lawmakers lowered the floor for fentanyl trafficking. Progressive groups say that Lombardo’s proposals will continue to contribute to a “broken” prison system instead of focusing on rehabilitation.
Already, the state is considering reopening the Warm Springs Correctional Center in Carson City to accommodate a growing prison population.
Without further action, officials said it's likely people will have to sleep on prison floors because of crowding. Democrats say that Lombardo’s proposals will only accelerate growth.
Lawmakers already have several criminal justice bills in the works, including SB14, which would prohibit anyone arrested for domestic violence from receiving pretrial release on bail, and AB111, a Republican proposal that would make more traffic offenses a misdemeanor, partly reversing a 2021 effort to decriminalize traffic tickets.
— Isabella Aldrete
Elections
Democrats and Republicans agree that Nevada’s election system should be reformed — but they disagree on how.
Lombardo, a Republican, has once again called for requiring mail ballots to be received by Election Day in order to be counted, not up to four days after Election Day. Democrats oppose that proposal.
Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, a Democrat, wants to beef up resources for county election offices and suggested setting up a separate account through the state to help counties that need more funding.
Lorena Portillo, Clark County’s top elections official, told The Indy that she is looking for more full-time experts to be on her staff and that additional staffing might be needed depending on how the session plays out.
Sen. Skip Daly (D-Reno) has brought back an effort to criminalize so-called “fake elector” schemes with looser penalties than the 2023 bill vetoed by Lombardo.
Aguilar’s office has also proposed SB74, an administration bill that largely mirrors the original text of a bill from the 2023 session that was entirely changed in the final days, and AB73, which would require the disclosure of artificial intelligence in campaign materials.
His office also sponsored AB79, a broad-ranging bill prohibiting PACs from using donations for personal use. It would allow the use of unspent campaign donations for certain expenses that elected officials cannot afford because of their role, and require aspiring candidates to indicate their intention to run for office within a week of receiving $100 in donations.
— Eric Neugeboren
Economic development and taxes
At top of mind in Nevada’s economic development space is the renewed push to significantly expand Nevada’s film tax credits.
The film tax credit is currently capped at $10 million annually, and a proposal by Sen. Roberta Lange (D-Las Vegas) to increase it to $190 million stalled in the 2023 legislative session. Lange is bringing back a pared down version of the bill this year, and Assemblywoman Sandra Jauregui (D-Las Vegas) has also put a bill forward. Two industry giants, Warner Bros. Discovery and Sony Pictures, are backing separate efforts for the expansion.
However, the tax credit was not mentioned in Lombardo’s State of the State address, during which he pushed for targeted tax credits and incentives that benefit entities already established in Nevada that create high-quality jobs and address “essential needs.”
To that end, he is pushing for $24 million in tax credits for the construction of child care facilities, as part of his larger economic development bill. The bill text was not released before the session, but it will also call for creating a fund within the Governor’s Office of Economic Development to support infrastructure projects, such as roads and utilities. The estimated price tag of the bill is $124 million.
Elsewhere, the governor’s office is also looking to consolidate some of Nevada’s more than 300 boards and commissions, as proposed through SB78.
— Eric Neugeboren
Environment and energy
After calling water the state’s “greatest challenge over the next decade” during his 2023 State of the State speech, Lombardo did not mention it in his 2025 address.
But a wide variety of bills affecting water, the environment and energy are up for consideration this session.
Lawmakers are considering more than a dozen bills on water, including one that would implement a voluntary buyback program to allow state regulators to buy back water rights in areas that are over appropriated. Filed on behalf of the Joint Interim Committee on Natural Resources, AB104 echoes a similar bill sponsored last session by former Sen. Pete Goicoechea (R-Eureka) that — although widely supported on both sides — died without a floor vote.
A bill by the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources pushes for action to improve soil health (a similar bill failed last session), and a bill from Assemblyman Howard Watts (D-Las Vegas) would allow certain invertebrates to be recategorized as “wildlife,” thus allowing the state to manage them. A similar bill also failed last session.
Styrofoam containers could be banned from restaurants if a bill proposed by Assemblywoman Venicia Considine (D-Las Vegas) passes; a bill draft request by Sen. James Ohrenschall (D-Las Vegas) urges the federal government to finally recognize the unsuitability of Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste repository.
Assemblywoman Cinthia Zermeño Moore (D-North Las Vegas) has proposed legislation that would crack down on utilities’ ability to disconnect customers during extreme weather due to nonpayment. A separate proposal by the Joint Interim Standing Committee on Growth and Infrastructure would require utilities to report power disconnections, including household demographic and location information, to state energy regulators.
— Amy Alonzo
Gaming and tourism
The pace of Nevada’s gaming revenue growth has slowed in recent months, increasing less than 1 percent in 2024 to $15.6 billion.
But the resort industry’s immediate concern is for lawmakers to vote down AJR5, a proposed constitutional amendment initially backed by the Culinary Union that would allow voters to decide if the state should implement a lottery.
The Gaming Control Board has submitted two bills. AB58 would allow the board to administratively approve new casino games without additional approval from the Nevada Gaming Commission. SB46 would allow the control board to investigate and initiate a hearing if a license holder previously found unsuitable has not divested their ownership in a gaming operation.
— Howard Stutz
Immigrant communities
Conservative and progressive policy makers alike have not been entirely clear on how they plan to address President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda that could have major implications for Nevada’s undocumented population of nearly 170,000 people and their loved ones.
Lombardo has remained wishy-washy on immigration. In December, he said he was ready to deploy state law enforcement and the National Guard to support deportation efforts, but just a few weeks later told reporters that he doesn’t believe mass deportation is an “appropriate policy.”
Progressives so far have also taken a less assertive stance on immigration policy than in the past, such as in 2017, when legislators attempted to prevent local police from doing immigration enforcement work. Assemblywoman Cecelia González (D-Las Vegas), the new chair of the Nevada Latino Legislative Caucus, says that the group’s plans on immigration policy are uncertain beyond providing information to the community.
One of progressives’ biggest priorities this session is creating adjustments to driver authorization cards, which allow undocumented immigrants or those without a birth certificate or U.S. passport to drive legally in the state. Progressives hope to extend the expiration date of the cards so they would have to be renewed less often.
They also plan on pushing proposals to support street vendors who face high fees and restrictions to operate legally. One of these proposals aims to allow sidewalk vending in more" public spaces such as parks, while the other expands permitting to include non-food street vending.
— Isabella Aldrete
Cannabis
Sales of cannabis in Nevada have shrunk after years of growth, and industry regulators may be looking to the Legislature to help lessen those declines.
In December, the UNLV Cannabis Policy Institute issued a report outlining six different recommendations for eliminating the illegal unlicensed market, which accounts for up to 30 percent of all cannabis sales. The recommendations include developing a strategy to enforce against the unlicensed market and provide the Department of Taxation with the authority to collect taxes on unlicensed cannabis sales.
The department submitted SB41, which proposes requiring a new cannabis tax permit of anyone selling cannabis.
The Cannabis Compliance Board has proposed one bill, AB76, that seeks to clean up language from the original legislation that created oversight of Nevada’s cannabis industry. It seeks a long list of largely technical changes, including clarifying that smoking cannabis is allowed in a cannabis consumption lounge even though the law otherwise bans smoking in places of employment.
— Howard Stutz