Proposed Las Vegas film studio bill dies as session ends in theatrics, acrimony

CARSON CITY — A bid to lure two Hollywood studios to Southern Nevada died at the end of the state’s legislative session after some last-minute, screen-worthy drama on the final day of Nevada’s part-time Legislature late Monday night.

The tension started in the late evening when a competing bill’s sponsor suggested lawmakers scrap the effort and instead study the viability of studios in the state. And the session adjourned with equal amounts of theatricality when Republican state senators effectively filibustered through procedural moves until after midnight because of last-minute proposed resolutions that would have made changes to the Legislative Commission, an interim commission in state government.

Senate Minority Leader Robin Titus, R-Wellington, said she received notice of the changes 30 minutes before sine die.

“This whole session has been about communication; this whole session has been about getting along, and it truly was,” Titus said afterwards. “And it’s terrible that it ends like this.”

With about four hours until lawmakers adjourn Monday, an amendment proposed gutting all of Assembly Bill 238, which helps create the Summerlin Studios project, in favor of a study on how to develop and support a “sustainable film and creative media industry” in Nevada, according to the proposed amendment. That amendment, and the bill at large, did not get a vote in the Senate.

The governor’s multi-faceted crime and health care reform bills also died with the end of the session. A spokesperson for the governor’s office said it did not appear that Lombardo will call a special session but didn’t rule the possibility out.

The changes come from state Sen. Roberta Lange, D-Las Vegas. The senator is behind a separate but similar proposal to expand the state’s film tax credit program to build a studio campus and educational and vocational media facility, Senate Bill 220.

”I’ve worked to try and get the proponents of 238 to come together and do a merge bill, and they weren’t interested,” Lange told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Monday. “And so I think this puts everybody on equal footing to look at how we can diversify the economy in Nevada.”

The presence of the amendment made the bill’s future unclear, and Democratic leadership in the Senate pushed it toward the end of the agenda. AB 238 was pushed through the legislative process Sunday night, without a hearing in the Senate, to be considered by the 21-member body on the last day of session.

That decision followed a razor-thin vote in the bill’s house of origin on Friday night. The Assembly voted 22-20 to advance AB 238. Fifteen Democrats and seven Republicans approved the bill.

The bill proposed overhauling the state’s film tax credit program and offering those incentives to build a 31-acre film studio campus called Summerlin Studios.

The heavily lobbied effort was backed by Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Bros. Discovery and developer Howard Hughes Corp. It would’ve expanded the state’s film tax credit program from the existing $10 million cap to $95 million in annual film tax credits for 15 years, becoming available in 2028 and only after the studios begin development on the site.

Lange first proposed using film incentives to bring film studios to Southern Nevada during the 2023 legislative session, but her bill did not receive a floor vote that year. Her bill this session, SB 220, did not move out of committee, either.

Backers say the studio and neighboring campus project near Town Center Drive and Flamingo Road could have brought a $3 billion economic impact when development is complete. But opponents point to the low fiscal return on investment to the state. For every dollar Nevada spends on tax credits, the state and local governments could have expected to claw back 52 cents in tax revenue, according to a state-commissioned report released on May 26.

AB 238 was amended last week to include additional financial guardrails and increased capital investment requirements — a way for sponsors Sandra Jauregui, D-Las Vegas, and Daniele Monroe-Moreno, D-North Las Vegas, to calm concerns from lawmakers who worry they shouldn’t expand incentives in a time of economic uncertainty. It added a special entertainment district on the studio land to collect certain taxes to be used for expanded pre-K programming in the Clark County School District.

Contact McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X. Review-Journal reporter Jessica Hill contributed to this report.