In a few months, state lawmakers will gather in Carson City, as they do every two years, with one major goal: creating a two year budget. This year will be different than the last two legislative sessions, though. The democratically-controlled Senate and Assembly will be dealing with a Republican governor.
With about $11 billion in tax revenue, how will they spend that money? Our schools, with crowded classroom, are always in need — but the governor has promised to use some tax dollars to support private schools. As it is in many states, mental health is a major issue compounded by the fact that Nevada has one of the lowest rates of professionals per capita in the country. But how do you make a dent in that? Then there’s crime — and our incoming governor is the sheriff of Clark County. What happens there?
Joining State of Nevada host Joe Schoenmann on Thursday was Nevada State Senator Dallas Harris; Elliot Malin, the founder of Alpine Strategies; Annette Magnus, the executive director of Battle Born Progress; and State Senator Dr. Robin Titus.
On Monday, the state’s economic forecast showed the state will have about $2.3 billion more than expected.
This is Harris’ third legislative session. She said a lot of the spending is laid out in statute, but we have to ensure education is funded. The second largest piece of funding is health care.
Hundreds of bills are drafted each session, but only a handful ever become law. These are bills on everything from schools to crime to infrastructure to stranger things, like the state tartan.
One of the things Harris would like to bring to the state is an auto-IRA program.
“That's a program where all of those folks who are working hard but don't have the opportunity to save to their employer will now have an option to kind of automatically put some dollars away, to have that invested. I'm a firm believer that if we do not start helping people save today, our social programs are going to be in crisis in the future,” she said.
Another thing she said she’s looking at is making sure all local police departments are checking a national database for decertification.
“If an officer is decertified in Utah, we don't want them just coming on over to Nevada and picking up where they left off, especially if that might be for nefarious reasons. We want to make sure all of our officers are being checked. And then we also want to make sure that our police departments are participating in that national database, as well,” she said.
Democrats hold a supermajority in the state assembly, but are one seat short in the senate, which means both parties will need to compromise.
“Will negotiations be going on? Absolutely, that’s the nature of legislating,” Harris said. “Our job is to deliver for Nevadans, and I will tell you, every Republican up there that I've ever spoken to wants to do well for their constituents. So as long as we share that common goal, there is always room to get things done.”
Titus is a Republican senator from Northern Nevada, and this will be her fifth term in the Nevada Legislature. She said the state doesn’t need to spend all of the additional money.
“I feel strongly that we're looking at a recession coming in the near future. We have something called a rainy day fund here in Nevada. And I feel we should make sure that we add to our rainy day fund and not necessarily drain all of our funds,” Titus said.
Beyond her position as state senator, Titus is a medical doctor who grew up in rural Nevada. She said the key to getting more doctors to the state would be to have more slots for graduate medical education.
“We know that if we can educate them here, and then we train them postgraduate, they tend to stay in Nevada,” she said. “We need to do a better job of growing our own and keeping them in Nevada.”
Malin, a political strategist and lobbyist, said he expects more spending on health care next session. He noted the Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV, where there’s still a shortage of residency spots. He also supported adding to the state’s rainy day fund.
“We don't know what the economy looks like, this is such a new economic standing for everybody, because it's once every century we have this risk, or pandemic, right?” he said. “We have a lot of gaming revenue, we have NFR in town right now. The Strip is booming. Is it going to stay booming? And I think that's the question that we have to prepare ourselves for this next biennium.”
With Governor-elect Joe Lombardo, Malin said there’s a greater chance for opportunity scholarships, or school choice, to be funded. “That's a priority for this governor. He ran on this as a platform, and I think he's gonna hold out for it as well."
Magnus said that poses a problem for public education. “Defunding our public education with vouchers, because that's what opportunity scholarships are, is not a choice.”
Mental health funding was cut in the early 1990s, she said, and funding that should be a priority in the next session. She also said funding should be prioritized to state workers “who kept us afloat during the pandemic.” (Mental health funding in the early 1990s happened under Gov. Bob Miller, a Democrat.)
“I've seen a lot of really great compromise between Democrats and Republicans. And I think that's the way we do business in this state. What I don't want to see is compromise for the sake of compromise on things that we made significant progress on,” Magnus said. “Things like voting rights, things like improving our voting system so that all Nevadans who are eligible can make their voices heard in our elections. I do not want to go backwards on criminal justice reform, as Senator Harris said, We made significant changes to our criminal justice system. And those things need to continue regardless of whether or not Sheriff Lombardo comes from being a sheriff.“
She also said they will not negotiate on school vouchers.
“Our teachers, our parents, who are investing in our public schools, need to make sure that that money stays with our public schools.”
