Nevada's democratic constitutional officers held a briefing on Thursday to discuss plans that they say will fight for Nevada's working families.
Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, Treasurer Zach Conine, and Attorney General Aaron Ford outlined their top priorities to move Nevada forward.
Treasurer Conine acknowledged that Nevada's Rainy Day Fund is historically highest at $904 million, but everyday working families are still suffering with nationally high housing costs, groceries, and gas.
He says Senate Bill 210 will help Nevadans with housing.
“This bill will expand to include workforce housing and some help for education in our rural communities. Workforce housing is incredibly important as we face another potential tesla deal, which will bring another 3-thousand jobs into to story county. 3.6 billion investment into story county, that's great. But, we know that Sparks, and Washoe, and Reno are the ones who are going to have to house and provide services to those individuals,” said Nevada State Treasurer Zach Conine.
Treasure Conine’s most ambitious bill is Assembly Bill 28: the Baby Bond Bill.
“Under this bill, every child born in the state of Nevada whose birth is paid for by Medicaid, which is about 44% of kids born in Nevada, will get a $3,200 bond created in their name, managed by our office, that will continue to grow until that child is 18. When they are 18 they can use that bond for housing, they can use that bond to start a business, they can use that bond for education,” said Conine.
Conine says this bill strikes at the heart of his office's goal as the state's chief investment officer.
He says that so much of generational wealth comes through housing - and for too long the institutional structure has made it easier for people like himself to access that wealth while minorities have been cut out.
“When we look at generational wealth, so much generational wealth in our state, even in our country, comes through housing, and for so long we have simply had a structure that has made it real easy for people like me to get access to that generational wealth, but not real easy for other people in our community to have that access. We're trying to fix that." said Conine.
Democratic Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar says his first and foremost priority is securing Nevadan’s right to have access to the ballot box.
The Secretary of State's office is accelerating the implementation of a statewide election management system before the February 2024 presidential primary election.
“That's why we've requested $30 million to accelerate the implementation of a VREMS system, it's a voter registration election management system, which we can do to ensure that the state is operating in a sufficient and secure way, currently every county manages their voter registration database, different election management systems, 17 different processes, 17 different systems,” said Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar.
With a universal statewide election management system, democrats are focusing on efficiency and capacity - and not capping the time that votes can be counted.
Another priority, is making it a felony to harass or intimidate an election worker.
Republicans say that the majority of Nevadans are in favor of making voter identification mandatory.
But, democrats, including Attorney General Aaron Ford - are not in favor of the state requiring mandatory voter IDs.
“What's the compelling reason the state is putting forth to require an additional requirement to vote? They may claim that it's voter fraud, and everyone be like yeah that makes a lot of sense, but then you have to prove that there is in fact a sufficient amount of voter fraud that justifies you instituting this new requirement on everybody. And three judge panels across the nation, that there is not this amount of voter fraud, that justifies the imposition of a voter id,” said Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford.
Ford is also putting a big focus on decriminalizing opioid addiction and shifting resources toward treating those battling addiction.
