EDITORIAL: Taxpayers will foot the bill for another special session

The 83rd session of the Nevada Legislature ended in a meltdown in June, as lawmakers squabbled, fought to revive dead bills and tried to ram through legislation with little debate as the 120-day deadline approached. Blame for the disorganization falls squarely on the shoulders of legislative Democrats, who enjoy comfortable majorities in both chambers.

Now, the dysfunction will cost state taxpayers more money.

As a result of the disorder, several high-profile bills didn’t survive the constitutionally mandated adjournment date. That included health care and crime proposals offered by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, along with Democratic legislation that would shower massive tax subsidies on Hollywood to lure film production to the state. And now, Gov. Lombardo has announced that he will call lawmakers back to Carson City — likely in November — “to finish what the Legislature left unfinished — plain and simple.”

Under Nevada law, the governor determines the agenda for any legislative special session. Gov. Lombardo has yet to publicly state his intentions, and there is no real urgency surrounding any of the last-minute casualties from the chaotic 2025 finish. While there may be looming budget shortfalls thanks to federal Medicaid reforms and a downturn in taxable sales and tourism, those can be dealt with by interim committees and addressed when lawmakers reconvene early in 2027 before the budget cycle ends.

In short, there’s no need to saddle taxpayers with the expense of calling lawmakers back to Carson City. Yet here we are.

It seems likely that Gov. Lombardo will seek to revive his crime bill, perhaps dangling his support for the Hollywood handouts as a means of attracting Democratic votes for his own legislation. That would be an unfortunate trade-off. His crime proposal includes many positive reforms — practically and politically — but setting aside $1.4 billion in subsidies over 15 years for film production is a woefully inefficient means of promoting economic diversification.

While self-interested Nevada labor interests hope to pressure Democrats to support the handouts, virtually every study that has examined the financial wisdom of film subsidies — including two by Gov. Lombardo’s own Office for Economic Development — have found that they generate little return on investment. One of the Nevada reports concluded it is unlikely “that sufficient new tax revenue will be generated for this type of incentive to be sustainable.” This is consistent with other audits from around the country. A 2016 USC analysis found that the benefits of film tax subsidies “are almost nonexistent.”

Special sessions should be reserved for exigent circumstances. Putting state taxpayers on the hook for more than a billion in “transferable” tax credits for film and TV production doesn’t fit the bill.