LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Nevada political leaders are discussing a potential special session for later this year, but not for the reasons the state once feared.
Instead, lawmakers may take up bills that failed to pass at the end of the 2025 legislative session, including a crime bill sought by Gov. Joe Lombardo aimed at increasing public safety, especially on the Las Vegas Strip.
VIDEO: Steve Sebelius talks to Gov. Joe Lombardo about potential special session
Also potentially on the agenda: a film tax credit bill that could see a film studio built in Summerlin by the Howard Hughes Corp., Warner Bros./Discovery and Sony Pictures.
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That measure barely passed the Assembly during the session, but died in the Senate when the session ran out.
Gov. Joe Lombardo, in an exclusive interview with Channel 13, said "the special session conversation is happening as we speak," between the governor — who would officially call lawmakers up to Carson City — and legislative leaders.
"So there's some significant pieces of business that didn't make it through the normal process, I think we should address," Lombardo said. "So we're figuring that out and whether we can defer it to the next session [in 2027] or whether there's a need to do this in the short term."
Legislative leaders have also confirmed discussions about a special session are ongoing. Typically, an agreement between the governor and leaders of the Legislature is struck before a proclamation is signed. (Lawmakers in a special session are limited to only the business that the governor puts on the agenda.)
One thing that apparently won't be on that agenda: fixing cuts to state finances wrought by the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill. Although lawmakers worried during the session about potential cuts to education and health care funds, Lombardo said some temporarily withheld education money was released by the federal government.
Meanwhile, new regulations and cuts to Medicaid will mostly not take effect until after the 2027 session, allowing the state to put off dealing with that issue for another two years, the governor said.
"So a lot of things that we were in a quandary or wondering about are being deferred two years out, where we will have to address as part of the regular [2027] legislative session, but as part of a special session [now] it's not necessary," he said.
Lombardo confirmed that the film tax credit proposal is on the table for a special session as well, saying the measure should be considered a jobs bill rather than a tax-credit bill.
"Government is not necessarily in the jobs business. We're in the environment business," Lombardo said. "We create environments, and regulations, lack of regulations and everything else we can for businesses to be successful; it's incumbent upon businesses to develop the jobs associated with that."
The film tax bill fits that definition, he said, in addition to bringing an industry to Nevada that is more resistant to a recession than the hospitality industry.
"The overarching piece is creating an environment for those jobs to be brought here and to be had," Lombardo said. "So that's what we're discussing as part of the film tax credit."
But Lombardo did caution that the amount of the credit may need to be adjusted, given previous tax credits issued by the state to other businesses already operating in Nevada.
A special session would trigger a fundraising blackout for officials running for office, including all members of the Legislature. They would be prohibited from raising money for 15 days before, during and 15 days after a special session.
Special sessions have become more common since voters approved a strict 120-day limit on legislative sessions in 1999.
From 1864 to 2001, there were only 16 special sessions called in Nevada. But from 2001 to the present, there have been 19 special sessions, which cumulatively account for 116 total days, or nearly the length of a regular session.
Although most special sessions last just one day, or even part of a day, some run much longer. In 2003, the 20th special session ran for 27 days, and the 21st ran for 24 days before the Legislature finally resolved a thorny budget crisis.
In 2020, two special sessions called to deal with pandemic-related issues ran 11 days and seven days respectively.