LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Improving education, fighting crime and getting election results more quickly are among Gov. Joe Lombardo's priorities for the 2025 Legislature.
Lombardo outlined his agenda in the biennial State of the State speech, delivered Wednesday to a joint session of the Nevada Legislature in Carson City. The 83rd session of the Legislature starts on Feb. 3.
WATCH: Governor Joe Lombardo delivers his State of the State Address
Here are five takeaways from Lombardo's speech.
1. Help for people struggling to find a home. The governor repeated his call for federal land to be made available for development in Nevada and said he'd had several conversations with President-elect Donald Trump about the issue.
Lombardo said he'll push for a bill he's calling the "Nevada Attainable Housing Act," which he said will prioritize state funding to build $1 billion in new "attainable housing" in the state. The bill will reduce fees and create public-private partnerships to build new homes.
Lombardo stressed the initiative would be to "create housing by Nevadans for Nevadans" and not "out-of-state investors looking to cash in."
That line was designed to answer criticism from Democrats in a memo distributed before the event that highlights Lombardo's 2023 vetoes of housing legislation and his support from Robert Bigelow, owner of the short-term rental Budget Suites chain. The memo noted the rising number of evictions (which were halted by the government during the COVID-19 pandemic) and the increase in homelessness in Las Vegas during Nevada's tenure.
2. Better education. Lombardo reminded the Legislature of the largest increase in funding in K-12 education approved in 2023 but said a lack of funding can't be an excuse for underperforming schools. The remark echoed his pledge two years ago to push for a change in leadership if schools didn't improve despite the extra dollars.
Lombardo said children should be able to switch to better-performing schools. "No child should be trapped in a failing school because of their ZIP code or held down because of how much their parents or grandparents earn," he said. "If a school is found to be consistently underperforming, make no mistake, my bill proposes decisive action."
It wasn't clear from the text of the speech if Lombardo favored allowing students to switch to private schools, or just to better-performing schools within their public school districts, or to a charter school. A plan to allow parents to take tax dollars to private schools ran into legal problems and was later repealed by the Legislature. However, an existing program that allows businesses to gain tax credits by donating to student scholarships is still on the books.
In the Democratic response, Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager said his party would oppose all efforts to privatize education, denouncing private, out-of-state corporations looking to profit off of Nevada students. Democrats, he said, would push to have a qualified teacher in every classroom and at every school in the state.
3. Quicker election results. Lombardo said in an interview with Channel 13 last month that it was a "national embarrassment" that Nevada couldn't report final, unofficial election results on the night of the election. And while Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar has said the vast majority of election results are in and counted by Election Day, Nevada law still allows ballots postmarked on Election Day received up to four days after the election to be counted. That counting takes about a week after the election is over.
"It makes zero sense to keep counting ballots four days after an election," Lombardo told lawmakers. "We can be proud that Nevada is one of the easiest places to cast a vote, but it's time we make sure the votes are in and counted by Election Day."
Although Lombardo said he hopes to sign a bipartisan election-counting reform bill, the odds are against it. Democratic lawmakers included the Election Day postmark provision when they decided to send a mail-in ballot to every active registered voter, and they are unlikely to repeal that provision, especially given that Democrats tend to vote by mail more than Republicans.
To be sure, Yeager said Democrats would stand against any effort to restrict people's ability to vote any way they choose to, whether in person, during early voting, or by mail. "We must not let politicians silence voters," he said.
That's probably why Lombardo pledged to take the matter directly to the voters through an initiative if lawmakers fail to act. That's what happened with a provision requiring voters to show an ID to vote in person or by mail. Although lawmakers ignored it, a citizen's initiative passed overwhelmingly in November with 73% of the vote and is headed for a second vote in 2026.
4. By the numbers. Lombardo said the general fund budget for the next two years will be $12.7 billion, including pay raises for state employees and teachers. The budget grants pay raises to charter school teachers as well, he said. And the state's so-called Rainy Day Fund — which was drained in the COVID-19 pandemic — now has $1.3 billion in reserve. Lombardo said he rejected millions in budget requests from various agencies, and that his budget contains no tax increases.
5. Bipartisan cooperation! It's a staple of every governor's State of the State, which is delivered two months after the bitterness of the most recent election and two weeks before lawmakers actually start the process of passing laws. The sentiment usually lasts at least until the end of the first day of the session.
Lombardo's speech was no different: "That level of cooperation, the willingness to come together and find common ground, is what I hope for in this session as we work to solve the needs of our students, parents and educators," Lombardo said.
"In this chamber tonight, there are no Republicans, no Democrats, just regular Nevadans who are bonded by our shared history that teaches us again and again there are no challenges we cannot overcome if we summon the will to work together," he added. "We must set our sights on shared goals and rise above harsh political rhetoric. In five months, we will be judged — you and me — by the results we achieve together."
But in two weeks, the rhetoric of the speech will have faded, and lawmakers will begin the process of dissecting the governor's bills and their own.
