EDITORIAL: 2025 resolutions for Nevada’s political class

As we ring in 2025, millions of Americans go through the annual resolution ritual, vowing — if not always successfully — to make improvements in their daily lives. In this spirit of self-examination we offer a few suggestions for Nevada’s leadership class.

■ For the Las Vegas City Council and the Clark County Commission: A resolution to at least pretend about the taxpayer money with which you are entrusted.

The City Council is on the verge of finally settling a long-simmering land use dispute with a developer over the defunct Badlands golf course. For nearly a decade, the city, doing the bidding of well-heeled residents in the surrounding development, attempted to block Yohan Lowie’s EHB Cos. from turning parts of the track into additional housing. After losing numerous times in the courts (nice legal advice!), the fight left Las Vegas taxpayers facing a liability approaching $700 million thanks to city efforts to unconstitutionally restrict Mr. Lowie’s property rights. The deal on the table will will cost a mere $636 million.

None of the City Council members who greenlit this futile legal dead end — including Mayor Carolyn Goodman, whose legacy will be forever stained — have expressed much remorse for this boondoggle. After all, it’s not their money.

Meanwhile, the County Commission in June agreed to an $80 million settlement with a developer after spending nearly two decades trying to stop a housing project on Blue Diamond Hill overlooking Red Rock Canyon. More than half the money will be reallocated from parks projects across the valley. Who needs public playgrounds and ball fields, anyway?

■ Democrats in Carson City: A resolution to slow down on efforts to turn Nevada into California.

In the November election, legislative Democrats — who have gerrymandered themselves a near permanent edge — fell just short of achieving a supermajority in both the state Senate and Assembly. But slim gains for legislative Republicans, along with Donald Trump’s convincing performance in Nevada and the evolution of voter demographic trends, may foreshadow that the Silver State isn’t yet ready to turn deep blue. Nevertheless, Democratic lawmakers continue to offer warmed-over progressive policies such as rent control, an overactive regulatory state and an embrace of the failing educational status quo. There’s a reason many residents are fleeing blue climes for more economically hospitable red states.

■ Gov. Joe Lombardo: A resolution to have enough ink on hand to supply the many veto pens the Republican chief executive will need to temper the worst instincts of a Democratic Legislature.

See above.