LVGEA highlights regional efforts to support economic development during Nevada Legislative wrap-up

With a record 75 vetoes and two special sessions, the 2023 Nevada Legislative session was an active one, producing wins, losses, and legislation sitting somewhere in between related to economic development.

On Tuesday, June 27, more than 60 LVGEA investor members attended LVGEA’s Nevada Legislative Wrap-Up event at The Stirling Club, to learn about legislation passed during the session impacting economic growth and diversification efforts in Greater Vegas.

“Economic development is a nonpartisan issue,” said Amber Stidham, chief strategy officer at LVGEA. “This is a quality-of-life investment we need to make, regardless of your political affiliation or industry. Together, we all must continue educating lawmakers about the value of economic development, and the role it plays in the larger economic ecosystem.”

Carrara Nevada, a full-service government affairs firm that advises LVGEA on state and regional legislative issues, described this session as “unique, but with a typical progression.”

“There was a lot of optimism at the beginning,” said Connor Cain, vice president at Carrara Nevada. “As you move through the session, the tone starts to turn. We had a republican Governor, with a heavily democratic legislature. That back and forth led to a record number of bills being vetoed, but what you don’t see in the headlines is the bipartisan measures that were also passed, including a record amount of education funding.”

Carrara Nevada, along with LVGEA’s policy committee and government affairs team, spent time during the session meeting with legislators to educate them on regional priorities.

“We spent a lot of time debunking the myth that economic development is corporate welfare,” said Cain. “We spent time educating legislators on what economic development is, and what it isn’t. We explained why it’s important to diversify the economy. It’s not only to be resilient during a downturn, but that brining new business and industry to our region also increases our quality of life.”

The Carrara Nevada team noted that Governor Joe Lombardo’s pro-economic development agenda aided the group in their conversations with legislators.

“Governor Lombardo proposed the Nevada Way Fund, in his state of the state address,” said Cain. “That didn’t come to fruition, but it set the tone for his economic agenda. The Governor also vetoed several bills that would have been damaging to economic development.”

LVGEA and its policy committee actively monitored nearly 100 bills throughout the session. Tuesday’s event highlighted a few of those bills:

• AB484: provides $700k per biennium to regional development authorities, returning to pre-pandemic levels of funding. The bill was signed by the Governor.
• SB181: Senator Julie Pazina’s proposal to cut red tape for approval of abatements less than $500,000. The bill was signed by the Governor.
• SB429: required paid leave for businesses qualifying for abatements. Governor Lombardo vetoed the bill, but the language was later added to SB1 during the second special session.
• SB226: Majority Leader Canizzaro and Speaker Steve Yaeger’s prevailing wages on public works project bill, was amended to largely remove overarching prevailing wage application to economic development projects.
• SB431: Governor Joe Lombardo’s Government Modernization & Efficiency Act, which included the Nevada Way Account. LVGEA testified in support of the bill. The bill was significantly modified, and the Nevada Way Account was removed.
• SB394: Senator Dina Neal’s proposal, originally focusing on property taxes related to school funding, then later supplanted with language to prohibit the Governor’s Office of Economic Development board from approving tax abatements greater than $500k. The bill died in committee.
• SB496: Senator Lange’s Nevada Film Studio Infrastructure Act, which would have provided tax credits to film studios in Southern Nevada. The bill died in committee.

Tuesday’s event closed with a look ahead at the 2025 session and questions about legislative composition and impacts to the economic development ecosystem that could occur should a super-majority occur in both chambers.

“There is already a super majority in the Assembly, and we are one seat away from a super majority in the Senate,” said Ashley Cruz, director of strategic planning and initiatives for Carrara Nevada, noting that should voters support a super majority it could weaken the Governor’s ability to serve as a “check and balance” countermeasure relative to law being created by state lawmakers.

LVGEA President & CEO Tina Quigley wrapped up the evening reiterating that even with the Governor’s support, the region and state has considerable work to do to properly fund and support economic development measures to ensure Nevada can generate new tax dollars to support state and local governments while at the same time creating diverse jobs and careers for Nevadans by attracting industry to the area.

“We are a state that hasn’t prioritized economic development in the past,” said Quigley. “For us, the next session starts right now. It’s important to get in front of our legislators now and explain to them that economic development is a competitive sport. If we are going to be truly serious about attracting new businesses, we need to have a seat at the table, and we need to fund it.”

For a partial list of bills LVGEA, with the support of its regional partners, engaged in during the session, CLICK HERE for LVGEA’s legislative blog.