2025 Legislature: Where key bills stand in final days
CARSON CITY — The end of the 120-day legislative session is fast approaching, and Nevada legislators are working day and night to push forward legislation before they adjourn late Monday.
Major policy proposals received last-minute discussions and votes, and despite only a few days left until the end of the session, legislators introduced entirely new proposals, such as allowing nonpartisan voters to participate in primaries.
Efforts to find compromise between the Democratic majority and the Republican governor have been evident in the last few days.
Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager extended an olive branch to Lombardo by amending an election bill to include voter ID requirements, and Republicans and Democrats worked together to push forward charter school teacher raises and a $12.9 billion education budget.
But as of 4 p.m. Saturday, crucial legislation had yet to make it to the governor’s desk, and some even to floor votes. A high-profile push to bring Hollywood film studios to Southern Nevada received a nail-biter Assembly vote Friday night, but it still needs approval from the Senate and the governor to become reality.
Education has been a focal point for policymakers on both sides of the aisle, and legislators are working to combine Democratic Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro and Gov. Joe Lombardo’s education proposals into one.
Here’s some happenings in the waning hours of the 83rd session, as of the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Saturday print deadline.
Lights, camera, action in the Assembly
Lawmakers advanced Assembly Bill 238 in a Friday night vote that brought observers to the edge of their seats. The bill, which would allocate $95 million in annual transferable film tax credits for Sony Pictures Entertainment and Warner Bros. Discovery to build the Summerlin Studios complex, received a close 22-20 vote. Fifteen Democrats and seven Republicans supported the bill.
Perhaps the buzziest bill of the session, the so-called “Nevada Studio Infrastructure Jobs and Workforce Training Act” would require the studio partners and developer Howard Hughes Holdings Inc. to begin construction on the 31-acre campus near Town Center Drive and Flamingo Road before receiving the tax credits.
The proposal has captured the attention of Southern Nevadans, some of whom are fascinated by the plan to draw a new business type to a state that has long relied on the dominant gaming and hospitality industry. The powerful Culinary Local 226 endorsed the bill Thursday, joining fifteen other labor unions.
Opponents, however, say the proposal is not economically sustainable for the state. A state commissioned report projected for every dollar spent on tax credits, state and local governments would likely recover 52 cents.
Amendments adopted during the final week of session would add financial safeguards and establish a special assessment district on the studio and campus land to support pre-K expansion in the Clark County School District. The state Senate must vote on AB 238 before the end of session to make it to the governor’s desk for approval.
Lombardo’s priorities
Most of Lombardo’s five priority pieces of legislation relating to housing, health care, economic development, education and crime have been making their way through the legislative gears.
AB 540, which seeks to make more “attainable housing” in the state by creating a $133 million fund for certain housing projects, passed the Assembly unanimously this week, but it still needs a vote from the Senate.
Several of the Republican governor’s other bills appear to be opportunities for compromise. Cannizzaro and Lombardo’s dueling education bills are being merged together into the Senate majority leader’s SB 460.
The governor’s health care agenda also appears to be coming to fruition. Senators unanimously approved Senate Bill 494 on Friday, a bill splitting the Department of Health and Human Services into the Department of Human Services and the Nevada Health Authority. The new agency would oversee the state’s health-related programs, services and regulatory duties including Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange, among other duties.
Another policy bill, SB 495, would tackle the state’s health care provider shortage, expand mental health services and streamline health care. The bill could be considered in the Senate on Saturday.
During the bill’s first hearing on Tuesday, Lombardo told lawmakers about a time when his grandson needed emergency surgery, but there was not a doctor in Southern Nevada who could perform the procedure. By chance, there was a Texas-based surgeon in town who was able to step in.
“The need for more doctors, nurses, specialists and health care providers is increasingly evident,” he said.
The governor’s crime bill, SB 457, had a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, but it hasn’t been voted on as of Saturday afternoon.
Nonpartisan primary participation
Earlier this week Speaker Yeager proposed AB 597, a bill that would allow Nevada’s large population of nonpartisan voters to participate in a party’s primary election of their choosing.
Yeager said the bill will appeal to over a third of Nevada voters who are registered as nonpartisan and do not want to change their party registration to participate in a major part of the democratic process.
The speaker argued that his bill serves as a way for the state to change its election process, rather than out-of-state interest groups’ efforts to alter them through ballot questions. In 2024, Ballot Question 3 would have implemented open primaries as well as a ranked-choice voting system. The initiative failed by several percentage points.
Republican legislators and groups spoke in opposition, saying it will dilute parties’ power and is unnecessary since nonpartisans can already participate in a primary if they do same-day voter registration.
Yeager amended his bill to exempt presidential preference primaries from including nonpartisan voters. His bill passed out of committee Thursday.
Yellow light on traffic cameras
Longstanding efforts to install red light cameras to enforce traffic laws were tried again this session, with mixed results so far.
Senate Bill 415, which would have allowed the installation of traffic enforcement cameras in areas prone to crashes, failed to get a vote out of committee.
Two other related bills are still alive.
AB 402 creates a pilot program authorizing the installation and use of automated traffic enforcement systems in construction zones. It passed the Assembly on Friday in a 27-15 vote. Sixteen Democrats and 11 Republicans voted in favor. Four Republicans and 11 Democrats opposed.
AB 527 allows school districts to install cameras on school buses to enforce vehicle stops for school buses. The bill passed chambers and is now on the governor’s desk.
Payments bank bill fails?
An unusual proposal to establish a new bank type in Nevada failed in the Assembly on Friday night — but it could still be revived.
Another one of Yeager’s bills, AB 500, would have established licensing and regulations for payments banks. The newly chartered banks would only be allowed to process payments, no lending or other related activity. The intention was to reduce small transaction fees that add up for businesses as money moves through financial systems.
Banking groups and the Nevada Financial Institutions Division opposed the bill because they had concerns with the self-funding structure and whether the division had the capacity to properly regulate a new bank type.
The measure required a two-thirds vote to pass because it imposed a 0.025 percent fee that banks would pay for each transaction, to be allocated to the general fund.
It fell three votes short. Assemblymembers voted 25-17, with four Republicans joining the ayes. After, the Assembly reconsidered the vote and moved AB 500 to the chief clerk’s desk — a sort of holding spot for bills that leadership may put on future agendas.
Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com and McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah and @mckenna_ross_ on X.
