LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Nevada lawmakers on Monday passed a bill that would allow the county commission, rather than Clark County voters, to continue indexing the gas tax to inflation for ongoing road projects.
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That vote comes as lawmakers are facing down a Friday deadline for committees to pass bills that have already been approved by the opposite house. Bills that fail to meet that deadline are considered dead for the rest of the session.
Assembly Bill 530—which passed both houses with veto-proof supermajorities—would allow Clark County commissioners to continue fuel tax indexing for another 10 years, assuming they muster a two-thirds vote on the commission.
Two years ago, Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoed a similar measure, saying he sympathized with the need to pay for road projects in fast-growing Clark County but objected to not allowing voters to have their say.
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"Ensuring well-maintained roads for Clark County residents and visitors is an important goal," Lombardo wrote then. "However, the mechanism proposed in AB 359—circumventing an affirmative vote of the people—is concerning to me. The arguments in favor of fuel revenue indexing are compelling, but a decision on this issue, which impacts household budgets every day, is most appropriately rendered by the voters."
Lombardo's office offered no comment on the latest version of the bill on Monday, but since it passed 39-3 in the Assembly and 14-6 in the state Senate, the Legislature could override a veto, assuming lawmakers don't change their positions.
Indexing started in 2014, and voters approved the idea in the 2016 election by a vote of 56% to 44%. But residents were promised a second vote in 2026 to gauge if they wanted to continue indexing for another 10 years.
AB 530 would cancel that vote and leave the matter in the hands of the county commission.
If the bill is vetoed by Lombardo and lawmakers don't override, the county commission could still lay the question before voters in 2026, although the vote might be a tough sell for the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada. Nevada's fuel taxes are already high, and construction projects are ubiquitous throughout the valley.
But RTC officials have argued that if indexing is eliminated, their road-maintenance budgets would be radically slashed, from about $300 million to just $100 million, leaving the agency unable to keep up with road maintenance and road building, despite the valley's constant growth.
The agency has identified 179 projects that would not be built without the indexing funds.
In addition to fuel tax indexing, other bills coming up for consideration include:
- Assembly Bill 487, which would ban the sale of dogs and cats in pet stores in Nevada. The practice is currently banned in Clark County, but is allowed in other jurisdictions. It's scheduled for a Tuesday afternoon hearing in the Senate Natural Resources Committee.
- Senate Bill 322 is scheduled to be heard on Tuesday in the Assembly Education Committee. It would require professional development training for regents, in the wake of a couple high profile incidents involving remarks that proved controversial.
- Senate Bill 290 would allow security officials to remove disruptive or threatening passengers from public buses. It's up for a final vote Tuesday in the Assembly Growth and Infrastructure Committee.
- Several elections-related bills are up for final votes in the Assembly Legislative Operations and Elections Committee on Tuesday. Senate Bill 100 would make it a felony for elected officials to fail to perform election-related duties. (The bill comes after two Washoe County commissioners initially refused to certify a pair of post-primary recounts in 2024.) Senate Bill 102 would make it a felony to participate in a slate of fake electors, as six Republicans did following the 2020 election. And Senate Bill 414 would require disclosure of money raised by inaugural or transition committees.
- Meanwhile, the Senate's Legislative Operations and Elections Committee is slated to tackle Assembly Bill 73 on Tuesday, which would require a disclosure if artificial intelligence was used to create all or part of a political ad. It will also consider Assembly Bill 496, which would require county clerks to provide updates on how many mail ballots are left to count after an election.
The Legislature has until June 2 to finish its work, although the final days are usually dominated by the five major bills that make up the state's budget. But there still remains a large number of bills that have either met the deadlines, or that are exempt from those deadlines, before lawmakers can wrap up the session.
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