The 36th Nevada Special Legislative Session was nothing short of eventful.
From day one, fireworks surrounded the film tax credits bill that ultimately died on the Senate floor on the seventh and final day.
History was made as legislators essentially called their own special session by getting a new bill that was not on the Governor's proclamation on the agenda.
In the final minutes before the Nevada Legislature adjourned sine die at 10:19 p.m., the Senate surprised everyone with a last-minute resolution for a constitutional amendment.
Plus, aside from the fireworks, there was a lot of key legislation that passed.
Film tax credits fail
We'll begin with the main attention grabber of the session, Assembly Bill 5, known as the film tax credits bill.
The proposed legislation was trying to give Warner Bros. Discovery, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Howard Hughes $1.8 billion in transferable tax credits over 15 years.
On Wednesday night, that bill failed with a 10-8 vote. Three Senators had excused absences. Since a constitutional majority is needed, 11 votes was the minimum number to get the bill to pass.
Tensions filled the room before the moment everyone was waiting for.
Leading up to the vote, many lawmakers gave testimony for their decision.
"I know you gave me a dollar, but I gave you 23 cents back in return," said Sen. Dina Neal (D), Clark County, during the hearing with an actual dollar and coins in her hands. "That's not how we are supposed to be doing business in this state."
Senator Neal gave interesting reasons for her decision. She was very critical and questioned the bill, but said she was voting in favor because of Senate Majority Floor Leader Nicole Cannizzaro.
"The vote that I took on this bill represented a vote for working families because those jobs really were so important for so many folks," Cannizzaro said.
Neal did add tidbits about what was going on behind closed doors during the special session.
"I will be voting yes on this bill," Sen. Neal said. "I want folks to be absolutely clear it wasn't because you came in here and strong-armed anybody. I hate your tactics."
Between northern Nevada Senators, the decisions were split.
Senators Lisa Krasner (R), District 16, and Skip Daly (R), Washoe County, voted in favor of the bill. Senators Ira Hansen (R), northeast Nevada, and Angie Taylor (D), Reno, voted against it.
"It was close, I have to tell you," Senator Taylor said. "It was very, very, very close, and at the end, with all of the benefits, and there were many, I just couldn't get to a place where I was comfortable with the numbers."
"You really think that the Howard Hughes corporation is just going to 'oh my gosh, I guess we'll have to leave the state of Nevada because we didn't get the giant corporate handout from the Nevada government?' Nonsense," Senator Hansen said.
"I made the decision to support AB5 because this is a jobs bill," Senator Krasner said.
Senate Minority Leader Robin Titus was an excused absence. However, she has vocally spoken out against the legislation since the regular session.Â
Lawmakers said they would still be willing to discuss more in the 2027 Nevada Legislative Session, but for now, the Summerlin Studios Project has hit another snag.
Legislators make history
Before the final votes were discussed, on Wednesday morning, a petition for an unprecedented move was read on the Senate floor.
In it, the Nevada Legislature received a two-thirds majority to essentially call its own special session. It is the first time in state history that legislators called their own session.
The legislators needed two Republicans to flip in order to do it. Senator Hansen and his wife, Assem. Alexis Hansen (R), northeast Nevada, were the two to make this a historic session.
The petition put SB10 on the Governor's proclamation to add it to the special session agenda.
Senator Lori Rogich (R), Clark County, did take issue with it initially.
"Why would you, a member of our own caucus, not want to work with us?" she said before Cannizzaro broke it up.
Hansen said the contention came as a surprise when we spoke with him after the meeting.
"I was a little shocked that it turned into what it did here because my goal is to not make this partisan," he said. "My goal is to get a good policy in place that helps younger people buy homes."
The bill was looking to limit corporate investors to buying up to 1,000 existing single-family homes in a calendar year. That would've been in total, not for each corporation. It was in response to rising rent prices.
Let's take a look at the history of the bill.
A similar bill in the 2023 Legislative Session passed out of both houses, but the Senator Neal-led bill was vetoed by Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo.
Then, in the recent 2025 session, Neal brought it back as SB391, but the bill did not receive a two-thirds majority and failed.
Senator Hansen originally voted no, but said it was not due to issues with the policy.
"The bottom line is they were trying to get some leverage so the Governor's bills could go forward too, and ideally what happens in those situations is that you have compromise bills that come out and that never happened," Hansen said.
Senator Neal and Hansen both presented at the Joint Committee on Jobs and Economy.
SB10 passed unanimously out of the Senate floor, 18-0. However, it did not receive two-thirds in the Assembly and lost by one vote, 27-10. One of those is Assemblymember Hansen.
"I have so much respect for this institution, but I don't have respect for what has transpired in the last few days, but particularly in just the last couple of hours," Assem. Hansen said before the vote. "I made a commitment from the get-go that I had not committed my vote."
Others said that they think the bill has a good foundation, but they need more time to fine-tune things.
"We just ran out of time, and so I do look forward to working with the stakeholders during the interim, both houses, both sides of the aisle, so we can get it right because nobody wants to get that wrong," Assem. Gregory Hafen II, (R) Assembly Minority Leader, said. "The consequences of getting it wrong are just too large."
However, there were many on the other side of the aisle that are upset it didn't pass.
"I think that it is a complete disservice to Nevadans," Sen. Cannizzaro said.
"Oh my, I am extremely disappointed," Sen. Taylor said. "That was a very unique opportunity. In my district, I have a very wide range economically. One end is very, very affluent. They care about housing too because their kids are coming out of college, graduating, and can't get a house. And then you have another end that they just want some affordable housing to live in. That's a problem in our state."
Senate surprises before sine die
In the closing moments, the Senate chamber brought a surprise. Senate Joint Resolution 1 is looking to enshrine mail-in ballots in the state's constitution.
Resolutions do not require committee hearings and can be passed by the body on the floor. Quickly, both the Senate and the Assembly passed it.Â
Now, it will go for a vote in the 2027 legislative session. If it passes again, it'll go on the 2028 ballot.
"It is time that we enshrine that right as part of our voting rights in the Nevada Constitution and ensure that there are plenty of places for people to bring that mail-in ballot and make sure that their vote is counted," Cannizzaro said.
Notable bills from last session pass through special session
There were some other bills that got lost in the spotlight with the previously mentioned topics.
The Governor's Safe Streets and Neighborhood Act was amended, passed out of the Senate, and then concurred in the Assembly.
The tough-on-crime bill looks much different than it did when it was first introduced earlier this year.
AB4, previously SB457, no longer decreases the theft threshold from $1,250 to $750. It also does not lower the requirements for different levels of fentanyl trafficking.
The act still focuses on stalking, helping victims of domestic violence, and addressing violence against school teachers.
It looks to get rid of the automatic sealing of records for crimes against children and the elderly. It also increases the sentences for DUI causing death, and if someone is found guilty of possession of child porn, instead of one charge for all the media, those convicted would be charged for each child depicted.
A surprising development came from one of the Senate amendments to the bill. Initially, the language was much broader about not letting police officers on school property. However, the chamber asked for the Assembly to return the bill to make adjustments.
The amendment seemingly suggests that law enforcement agencies, such as ICE, cannot show up at a school unless they have a proper warrant.Â
Another component was both Sen. Cannizzaro and Governor Lombardo's health care legislation to address the workforce shortage did not pass in the regular session. Assem. Hafen II. was upset at the time because there was a "poison pill" amendment added to it on sine die.
"That poison pill was removed, and we actually were able to tweak it to make it even better, and it's going to bring in more doctors, more medical professionals, more facilities that are desperately needed in this state," he said.
SB5 included an amendment that abortion coverage would be excluded from consideration for some of the funding in the bill. Sen. Hansen had issues with indirectly supporting abortion during the Senate floor hearing last week.
