Governor Steve Sisolak’s State of the State address at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas proposed several programs to help Nevada’s families, including unprecedented investments in housing, education, and infrastructure.
The State of the State is usually given from the Assembly Chamber in Carson City before the legislators, with no session this year Sisolak chose Allegiant Stadium as the site of his speech for symbolic reasons. Calling the stadium “a location that represents new jobs, new determination, new pride, and new progress for Nevada.
Sisolak introduced his Home Means Nevada initiative, a $500 million investment using federal funds to lower the cost of housing, help people stay in their homes, and create good-paying jobs. He also pledged an additional $160 million investment to help lower childcare costs for parents and keep childcare workers on the job, doubling the number of families the state will be able to support. These programs would be funded by federal pandemic relief money.
Other initiatives he announced included Nevada joining the Northwest Prescription Drug Consortium, along with Oregon and Washington to negotiate with drug companies together in an attempt to bring costs down, the use of federal money to cover the cost of school lunches for all students, creating a working group to focus on a statewide heat strategy to help fight climate change, convening a bipartisan task force to help new startup businesses get off the ground and expand, directing the Governor’s Workforce Development Committee to explore ways to make community college or other apprentice and training programs free for more Nevadans by 202, and committing to providing raises for Nevada State Police in the budget proposal he will submit to the legislature.
He pledged to do all of that without raising taxes.
“Since I’ve been governor, we haven’t raised one penny of new taxes on the people of Nevada, not one penny, and that’s also true of every proposal I’m offering tonight. No new taxes. No new taxes.”
In addition to his plans to improve infrastructure, Sisolak praised the resilience of Nevadans for facing the challenges of the pandemic and said Nevada’s economy is the fastest growing in the country with tourism up, unemployment down, and 100% of classrooms open.
“I’m so proud of our state and of our people,” Sisolak said. “Because despite the noise we hear from some in politics, despite the partisanship that can distract and divide, I know that at our core we all care about the same things a paycheck that keeps up with the cost of living, schools that teach, streets that are safe, businesses that thrive and create good jobs and a government that lives within its means.”
State Senate Republican caucus leader James Settelmeyer delivered the official Republican response on behalf of the Republicans in the State Senate and Assembly. He stated Sisolak’s plans will cost the state money once the federal pandemic money is spent.
“That agenda is reliant on the $6.7 billion Nevada has received in pandemic relief assistance from the federal government,” Settelmeyer said. “This is one-shot money that has been used to balloon the size of our government and has contributed to inflation and cost of housing increases, devastating to Nevada families and will be the bill that you, the residents of Nevada, will be on the hook for when the federal money is gone.”
Settelmeyer said the Covid-19 pandemic has shown the many strengths and weaknesses of our state, and also showed the danger of the emergency powers of the executive branch.
“At the worst, our government faltered when our residents needed it the most during the pandemic when our state Unemployment Division collapsed under the extreme number of claims for unemployment benefits as a result of the government-mandated business closures. This undisciplined spending is a contributing factor to the inflation and skyrocketing cost of living that is harming so many Nevadans.”
Settelmeyer said spending pandemic relief money will grow the government’s size with no plan to fund the growth when the money is gone.
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