Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Sisolak touts state’s progress under his leadership

‘Nevada is clearly on the move,’ governor boasts

Governor Sisolak Launches Nevada Child Care Fund

Wade Vandervort

Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak speaks during a press conference held to launch the Nevada Child Care Fund at the College of Southern Nevada in North Las Vegas Thursday, July 7, 2022.

Gov. Steve Sisolak in February detailed plans for “new jobs, new determination, new pride and new progress for Nevada” during his State of the State address.

On Tuesday, the Democrat highlighted the progress made and what he wants to accomplish next — that is, if he wins reelection in November against Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo.

In the last five months Sisolak launched his “Home Means Nevada” Initiative, which allocated $500 million of American Rescue Plan funds to create new affordable housing projects. He started his Nevada Child Care Fund, which covers the cost of child care copays for eligible families through 2023, and he created extreme heat and environmental justice teams aiming to protect Nevadans from extreme heat waves.

Nevada also got $75 million for free school lunches for children, received $20 million for crisis stabilization centers and $500 million for high-speed broadband access, Sisolak said Tuesday.

“Nevada is clearly on the move,” Sisolak said. “We’ve laid out a lot of promises and ideas in our State of the State (address), and I instructed my team to move forward as urgently as we possibly could in addressing those situations. And we have made progress on every single initiative we put forward.”

Sisolak highlighted Nevada’s launching of the Virtual Crisis Care program, a virtual mental and behavioral health pilot program with 11 law enforcement agencies in rural Nevada that was created through the Department of Health and Human Services with a $3.8 million grant from the Helmsley Charitable Trust.

The program equips law enforcement authorities in those areas with tools like iPads so they can contact a mental health professional to get immediate help for someonein need around the clock. It also “decriminalizes behavioral health issues,” according to the governor’s office.

“We take care of individuals where they are and in the best way possible. A lot of these (people) don’t need to be incarcerated and in jails; they need mental health programs,” he said.

Sisolak commended his staff in using federal funds from the American Rescue Plan and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to help Nevadans.

“Clearly, we couldn’t have had anywhere near this amount of progress if we didn’t have the federal funds coming in on every level,” Sisolak said. “We got a lot more requests than we had resources and money to fill all the requests, but you know, we did the best we can in terms of managing the requests and the money that we had available. Our economic picture is looking up considerably. We’re looking at a significant budget surplus going into the next session.”

High costs are affecting Nevadans both at the gas pump and in the grocery checkout line, but Sisolak said those issues were out of his control. With gas prices, for example, he couldn’t roll back the state gas tax because of a Nevada statute and bond restrictions that are in place, he said.

“There’s nothing that I can do as governor as it relates to fuel prices or groceries,” Sisolak said. “And people ask that question all the time, but unfortunately, there’s nothing that we can do.”

He said he hoped Congress and President Joe would come up with a plan to help battle inflation.

The Nevada Republican Party said it was “absurd” that Sisolak said he could not do anything about gas and grocery prices.

“Nevada currently has one of the highest gas taxes in the country, with 50 cents of every gallon as a state excise tax,” they said in a statement to the Sun. “Why can’t Steve Sisolak call a special session to repeal the gas tax and provide a price reduction at the pump?”

Sisolak also made promises for the future, such as proposing a salary increase for state police at the next legislative session in February 2023. He also wants to see funding approved to extend the Nevada Child Care Fund. Those are actions contingent on his reelection and approval by the Legislature.

Lombardo was not available for an interview, his campaign spokesperson Elizabeth Ray said. In an email Ray said, “Steve Sisolak has had two Legislative sessions and three and a half years as governor and his proposed changes will come if voters give him a second term? Is that a joke?”

Ray ticked off a litany of failures that have occurred during Sisolak’s first four years in the governor’s mansion: 95,000 businesses closed their doors because of COVID-19 shutdowns, schools are unsafe, fentanyl traffickers get reduced sentences, Nevada Highway Patrol is weak and there are not enough prison staff to keep prisons functioning.

“Steve Sisolak choosing to brag about his accomplishments over the past six months only shows how out of touch he really is,” Lombardo said in an email to the Sun. “Across the state, Nevadans are struggling to pay rent, buy groceries and get school supplies, all while Steve Sisolak has the audacity to brag about all that he and Joe Biden have done in Nevada. No matter what Steve Sisolak tries to say, Nevadans know they’re paying the price of Steve Sisolak and Joe Biden’s failed leadership.”

Lombardo declined to answer questions from the Sun about raising salaries for state police, what he would do differently with the federal funding Nevada received, and if he thought he could do anything to lower prices for Nevadans.