In order to avert a budget crisis for Nevada, Republican Governor Joe Lombardo and legislative-Democratic leaders came to a compromise on two budget bills minutes before Midnight on Wednesday night.
Those two budget bills were K-12 Education and The Authorizations Act, which authorizes billions of dollars for Nevada, including 1.7 billion for COVID relief.
And guess what, they're doing it all over again tonight
Lombardo and Democrats have to come to an agreement over the Senate Pay Budget and State Appropriations Budget.
We have confirmed that the Governor's office is asking for more concessions tonight, most notably expanding opportunity scholarships so that students can go to the school of their choice.
“It adds funding to opportunity scholarships; which opportunity scholarships are targeted for families who make 300 percent of the poverty line or below. So, we're looking at low income families who can take private scholarship money and go to a private school, that money is a different source of funding than educations,” said Power2Parent President and Co-Founder Erin Phillips.
Phillips went onto say, "We know there's going to be a negotiation, we know there's going to be a compromise in the end. The winners need to be our children and I think that's the biggest thing we need to focus on."
A budget bill that is on the docket for tonight is the State Worker Pay Budget, which is again one of the two budget bills the Lombardo needs to make a decision on by midnight.
Republicans argue that democrats proposed allocations in the state worker pay budget - are not sustainable.
“What has happened in the past from almost day one when I arrived in Nevada in 1980, that they gave something to state employees, and within two three years took it away from state employees,” said Assembly Minority Leader PK O’Neill on the floor last week.
The fifth and final big budget bill. the capital improvements project, has yet to be voted on by the Senate.
Republicans argue there are some unnecessary allocations made by the Legislative Counsel Bureau.
"We're extremely supportive of hiring staff in Southern Nevada but what's happened is now the legislature has proposing to assume three buildings. One building will have hearing rooms in it. And, the other two will be office buildings. And, the expansion requires that we hire almost 90 more people to operate the buildings, so 30 staff and almost 90 people to operate them. We think we could do it in a less expensive manner." said Senate Minority Leader Heidi Seevers Gansert
We reached out to the LCB on Monday, and they have not responded.
Sources tell us a Governor's signature on the Capital Improvement Project could ride up all the way to June 5th, the last day of the session.
