Push and pull: Will the 2025 Legislature see the same fights as 2023?

Two years ago in Carson City, Nevada legislators and the governor played tug of war with policy proposals.

Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo and GOP legislators pushed for need-based private school scholarships, but the Democratic-majority Legislature wouldn’t budge. They wanted universal school lunches, but the governor rejected it with his veto power. At the same time, the Legislature and the governor passed a major education funding bill.

Following the pattern, Democrats wanted to extend COVID-era renters’ rights policies, and Lombardo wouldn’t acquiesce; he advocated for voter ID, and Democrats put a stop to it.

Already, party leaders are making similar policy pitches for the 2025 Legislature commencing Feb. 3, begging the question: Will the 120-day session consist of the same proposals that didn’t go anywhere? Or will the split government find a way to compromise?

Echoes of 2023

Nevadans can expect to see familiar themes returning in the upcoming legislative session.

The political makeup of the Assembly and Senate is relatively the same, said David Damore, a political science professor at UNLV. Lombardo failed to unseat many legislative Democrats, though he succeeded in avoiding a Democratic supermajority that would have left his power to veto moot.

Both Lombardo and the majority party understand they have to work together to bring new laws forward. In separate recent interactions with the media, the governor and Democratic leaders were hopeful about working together.

Like in the last session, Democrats and Republicans will work together to find agreement when they can, Damore said. When they can’t, Democrats won’t move forward bills they disagree with, and Lombardo will put a stop to bills he can’t support.

“Where they can focus on that common ground, they will because there’s a political incentive to do that, but I think they’re also going to dig in and not really want to give either side too much of their sort of ‘pet’ bills,” Damore said.

This year, it’s also more complicated, Damore said.

“This is obviously the last session before the next election cycle when Lombardo will be up, and the Democrats may not want to give him a whole lot of wins for him to run on,” Damore said.

Another difference in the two sessions is the amount of money on the table, Damore said. The federal money that’s been around the last couple of cycles is not available, he said. Nobody wants to talk about taxes, but at some point, leaders will have to have a conversation about revenue, he said.

The wild card, Damore said, is what the federal government will do. If the Trump administration cuts some federal agencies, that could impact Nevada, whether some of that money saved goes back to states. Damore said a special session could be called after the 120-day session on that.

What could get done

Despite public disputes between parties and a record 75 vetoes, the government was able to get things accomplished in 2023 – from passing historic education funding to implementing protections for out-of-state abortion seekers. The upcoming session will also see some action taken on major policies.

Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager, D-Las Vegas, highlighted common ground policy issues during a press conference in Carson City.

“Housing is a disaster in this state. Health care is a disaster in this state. Education needs to improve vastly,” he said. “We agree on those things. It’s just a question of how we get there and how we do it and, I think that’s the hard part.”

Damore expects something will be done with housing, a major crisis caused by elevated interest rates, a slowdown in building, a lack of buildable land and increased construction and labor costs.

“If they don’t, that’s going to be a failure for all of them,” Damore said.

Democrats are pushing forward housing-related bills the governor vetoed last session, such as limiting rent increases for the elderly and banning summary evictions. The governor expressed being open to consider those bills again.

“Everything is always under consideration,” Lombardo said during a recent media availability in Carson City. “But I’ve been vocal that I do not support rent control, and I’ve been vocal on how we address housing in totality, versus what I believe is land being the crux of our issue.”

On education, there will likely be some compromise, Damore said. Both parties have discussed increasing accountability in education, but it remains to be seen if Democrats are willing to extend resources to charter schools, he said.

“I don’t think anybody can look at the system and think it’s performing great,” Damore said.

John Vellardita, executive director of the Clark County Education Association, said his organization will be pragmatic about investing in education.

He is in alignment with the governor on his proposals for teacher pay raises and addressing accountability, and Vellardita said the teachers’ union also “totally supports” Sen. Nicole Cannizzaro’s sweeping education bill.

“Cannizzaro’s has high standards of accountability too,” he said. “She wants to continue investing in education as well as investing in front-line educators with salary increases, so I think there’s going to be some common ground where we’re going to get something done this session.”

Chuck Muth, president of the conservative and libertarian advocacy group Citizen Outreach, is hopeful legislative Democrats won’t dig their heels in quite as deep when it comes to school choice.

“I think the fights are going to be the same,” Muth said. “The question is whether the outcome will be the same.”

There’s also consensus that action needs to be taken on health care, Damore said.

Lombardo’s pitch to reorganize the Health and Human Services department by compartmentalizing the insurance side from the service side was a “bold move,” he said.

Democratic leaders have expressed some support the general idea but said “the devil’s in the details.”

“Does the idea sound good?” Yeager said. “Sure, sounds good, but how are we going to do it?”

Yeager said there is a big federal component when it comes to Medicaid in DHHS, and employees can’t be doing state work while working on federal grant money.

During his State of the State Address, Lombardo reiterated support for voter ID and a change to mail ballot deadlines.

Democratic leadership have expressed agreement in wanting to see improvements in counting ballots but said they’re not going to compromise on any changes that would restrict people’s ability to vote.

Cannizzaro said during a press conference Democrats are open to addressing the issue of counting ballots on-hand on Election Day, since mail ballots received after Election Day making up a small percent of the total.

“I think that’s something that we’re all interested in, and hopefully that’s a bipartisan solution that we can work towards rather than looking at ways in which to restrict people’s ability to vote and to exercise their voice,” she said.

Non-starters?

Nevada-based groups heavily involved in the Legislature have high hopes some things will get accomplished.

Muth, who has been active in challenging the state’s voter rolls, hopes to see movement on election reform proposals in the next session. Republicans plan to introduce a voter ID bill that could get passed by the 2026 elections. With a voter ID ballot question passing by a wide margin, Muth thinks there could be some room for a bill.

Battle Born Progress, a progressive advocacy group, wants to see gun violence prevention legislation as well as a paid family leave bill, Press Secretary Jacob Solis said.

But organizations on both sides of the aisle want legislation that the other side thinks won’t go anywhere.

Muth doesn’t think Democrats will have success in pushing housing related items like rent control.

“I think that’s a non-starter,” he said. “The governor vetoed rent control bills in 2023, and I’m confident that he would do this in 2025.”

Solis – and Democratic legislative leaders — also have called opportunity scholarships a “non-starter.”

“When we talk about where school funding money should go, opportunity scholarships is not the answer,” Solis said. “And so we’ll see what happens there. We know the governor is going to bring it up. It is what it is.”

Solis would like to see Lombardo negotiate more with the Legislature to get priorities across the table, rather than veto bills at the last second.

“I hope there is cooperation, because there’s lots of policies that I think lawmakers and Lombardo can agree on at the end of the day that would make a real difference,” he said. “But if that all just ends up in vetoes again, then then what are we even doing?”

Film tax credits

Lombardo notably excluded film tax credits from his State of the State Address two weeks ago, which is going to be a big bill this session, Damore said.

Solis said Battle Born Progress is not opposed to business, but it is opposed to handouts when it comes to film tax credits.

“How many times is the state going to give out these huge tax breaks to companies that are simply not giving this return on investment to the state’s economy?” Solis said. “I think there’s some serious question marks left to be answered there.”

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com and McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah and @mckenna_ross_ on X.