We begin with the Nevada legislative session.

It adjourns on June 2, leaving lawmakers with little time to make big decisions based on a smaller than expected budget.

Tabitha Mueller, Capital Bureau Chief of The Nevada Independent, joins us now from Carson City.

Welcome Tabitha.

-Thanks for having me on the show.

-What is the next deadline that lawmakers are up against?

(Tabitha Mueller) So Friday is our big deadline to get bills out of their second house, right?

They've passed out of the first house of origin.

Now it's on to the second; and then after that second, they head to the Governor's desk.

There are, of course, exempted measures with financial impact, but what we're really paying attention to are bills that do not have those exemptions and must pass out.

-From your perspective, what is the hottest bill right now being talked about?

-Oh, I mean, I think film tax bills are-- you know, the film tax expansion measure is right up there with bills that are being talked about.

It's got a big fiscal effect on it, so I think lawmakers are still weighing.

Both of those are still in their houses of origin, and they're in money committees right now.

Also education measures, right?

We saw that Governor Joe Lombardo's education measure is up for a hearing this week, as is Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro's received a hearing.

Both of those conversations are happening, as well as budget bills.

We saw that the five budget measures have come forward, and everything now is just, how do we get to the end of session and make sure that we have bills that are passed and legislation, and that's all being implemented.

-You mentioned two education bills, one from Republican Governor Joe Lombardo and the other from Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, a Democrat.

Governor Lombardo has talked about potentially working with the Senator.

And what would that look like, combining the legislation?

What do you think?

-So I don't know if it'll be combining the legislation or what those conversations are looking like.

We know that conversations are happening.

We had a meeting with the legislative leaders, both Democrats and Republicans, where they rated on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the worst, 10 being the best, how conversations are going with the Governor's office.

They said it was about 8 or 9, so that's positive news for us heading toward the end of the legislative session.

I think these two bills that we're hearing, I mean credit matters, right?

We're talking about whether Governor Joe Lombardo gets brownie points or Senator Cannizzaro does, leaving this session.

So I think there's probably negotiations on what they need to keep in, what they need to keep out.

One of the interesting things that we saw in Governor Joe Lombardo's bill is sort of converting underperforming schools into charter schools.

And I think that that is particularly interesting because when you look at Senator-- Senate Majority Leader Cannazzaro's bill, it's really talking about accountability for charter schools, among a host of other measures.

And so I think there's some tension between those two, those two leaders about, you know, how much leeway do we give charter schools, how much accountability do we hold them to.

There are, of course, room for compromise, right?

Senate Majority Leader also included a proposal that would provide funds for charter school raises, which was in contention.

So it'll be interesting to see how that moves forward and the way those conversations will happen.

-And then, when you talk about funding, it just makes me think of the shortfall that exists, both for education and in, what, the other, the general fund?

-Absolutely.

I mean, we're seeing a shortfall across-- projected shortfall, I should say, across the board when we're talking about funding for schools and funding for the state.

And so lawmakers have put together budget bills, and I think we're going to be okay.

I mean, those bills don't increase education funding the way they did in 2023.

We're not seeing massive changes reflected in, you know, state worker pay, for example, but I think that what lawmakers' goal was is to just make sure that we were maintaining the status quo when it comes to existing programs and existing services.

We did see that on the Assembly side, Assembly Member Daniele Monroe-Moreno brought forward a bill to potentially tap into the state's rainy day fund for $350 million, which is sort of this emergency fund.

And when we talked to her about it, she said that that was more as the contingency plan.

So I don't think we'll need to tap into that money, but it is in place if, for some reason, between now and the end of the legislative session we have to kind of look at that funding.

-And Tabitha, you wrote an extensive article on Governor Lombardo's healthcare bill.

What's in it?

-So I'm going to preface this answer by saying this is a massive piece of legislation, and we won't be able to go through every fine point.

But I think top of the line what Governor Joe Lombardo is trying to do is to address the provider shortage.

We're seeing a shortage of nurses, doctors.

What he's also addressing is prior authorizations and approvals for health insurance.

We see a lot of folks talking about how their health claims are being denied.

We're seeing rising healthcare costs.

And so what his team actually did is put together an incredibly comprehensive measure to kind of take that on.

What's interesting about his proposal is that there's actually similar proposals moving through the legislature already on some of these topics.

For the provider shortage, his team put forward a graduate medical education bill to kind of make sure that graduate schools have additional funding and resources to help increase the number of providers in Nevada.

And Senate-- Senator Julie Pazina, she's a Democrat, she actually had a very, very similar proposal already.

And so when we asked them about those similarities, their team kind of said, Look, addressing these healthcare issues is a bipartisan effort, and we need to work together.

And Governor Joe Lombardo doesn't care if his bill is passed or another measure moves forward, as long as these issues are addressed.

-Governor Lombardo did set a record last session for the number of vetoes by a governor in a single session.

There are bills that are going to be before him again that he vetoed last session.

Are there any that you think may have a chance of getting his signature this time around?

-When we've asked Governor Joe Lombardo's office about these vetoes and whether similar measures that are going through now will meet the same fate, his office has said that the Governor will review every single piece of legislation on its own merits and then will issue.

Now, one thing that we have heard is there is an effort to change the state's unique summary eviction process, which actually requires tenants to file first in an eviction, as opposed to a landlord.

And it's the only one in the country that does this, right?

And I think that Governor Joe Lombardo has said he is open to that proposal, and he's open to signing that as long as the bill, you know, addresses his concerns that he had in the initial veto message.

So that's one of them.

I think some other ones may be less certain about what happens.

I know there's questions about a measure that would basically cap the price of prescription drugs to Medicare-negotiated prices that I don't know will move too much, but we'll have to see.

-Okay.

And then Medicaid cuts at the national level could bring back a special session, correct?

-That is something that I think we're definitely keeping an eye on.

It could have financial effects on the state budget.

If it does, that means we're seeing a special session likely in the fall when that-- when those cuts would move forward.

But again, we don't know yet fully where things stand.

It's like that proposal is likely to change.

-Tabitha Mueller of The Nevada Independent, thank you for your time.

-Thanks so much for having me.