Governor Joe Lombardo presented his state of the state address Wednesday.
But before that, Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager has shared that Assembly Member Tracey Brown May is doing well. During the preamble Brown May collapsed and was taken to the hospital to get testing done. Speaker Yeager says she is expected to make a full recovery.
After beginning his speech with an appreciation to first responders fighting the wildfires in southern California, Governor Lombardo proceeds to discuss many topics such as education, affordable housing, and future plans in this upcoming legislative session.
Lombardo says, “Without hesitation, I can confidently say that after 24 months in office we are running government. Government is not running us.”
In the beginning of his State of the State Address Governor Joe Lombardo says in two years employee vacancy rates have dropped from 25% to half of that. This comes after working conditions have improved, state employee productivity increased, and more people are back in office. With nearly 1.6 million Nevadans working, this marks the highest in our state’s 160-year history.
“But in an unusual twist, Nevada’s unemployment rate stands at 5.7%, a number that reminds us there is still much work to be done,” Lombardo adds.
He also says due to smart fiscal decisions and prudent policies, the state managed to raise the Rainy-Day Fund to $1.3 billion after the fund was drained because of the pandemic. He tells us last session over $2 billion was raised for new funding for Nevada students and schools, and he plans to make further improvements. Starting with a $12.7 billion executive budget to provide permanent teacher pay raises.
He’s also splitting the Department of Health and Human Service to focus on healthcare responsibilities with Nevada Health Authority such as Medicaid, the Health Exchange, employee benefits, and mental health funding.
Lombardo says, “Leveraging that power enables us to cut a better deal for taxpayers while offering better insurance options for Medicaid members, those Nevadans enrolled in the exchange, and state employees.”
He then presents a few acts to help with some common issues such as housing affordability, educational outcomes, public safety, and economic policy.
Starting off with Nevada Housing Attainability Act. He states the bill prioritizes state funding that will support $1 billion in new attainable housing units across Nevada along with affordable insurance.
“If fires do occur, despite our best efforts, we need to ensure that our homeowners and residents can have adequate insurance in place to help recover from loss and to stay in their homes.”
He’s also pushing for the Nevada Healthcare Access Act that will require all health insurance plans to adopt standardized prior authorization plans to reduce delays for patients and providers by 2028.
And to tackle the lack of funding in our education system, Lombardo is supporting the Nevada Accountability in Education Act. This act proposes to advance policies demanding stricter accountability, equity, and excellence across every grade level, expand open enrollment and provide more transportation, and use the Excellence in Education Fund to reward Nevada’s highest-performing teachers and administrators.
After Lombardo’s Address the democratic party responded saying while they do agree with tackling some of these issues, they’re a little confused on the actual details in the solution. For example, Medicaid.
Steve Yeager says, “All the Medicaid stuff is federal funding so when you’re talking about combining federally funded positions with state funded positions, you have all kind of red flags that come up.”
The state Democratic Party said in a statement that Lombardo has had more than two years to lower costs for Nevadans.
“While rent costs and food insecurity rise across the state, Joe Lombardo has offered no serious plan to fix these issues while directly obstructing and vetoing Democratic legislation that offered serious solutions to these serious problems,” the statement said.
Lombardo, the former elected sheriff in Las Vegas, vetoed a record 75 bills during the 2023 legislative session, including bills that would have added protections for renters, reformed Nevada’s eviction summary system, provided free lunches at K-12 schools and given insurance stipends to long-term substitute teachers.
You can view the entire state of the state address click here.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Governor Lombardo gave a speech on his 2025 State of the State Address in Carson City Wednesday night.
Currently in Reno
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