First elected in 2018, Peters was part of the historic first majority-woman legislature in the country and made history as Nevada’s first openly pansexual state lawmaker.

Gov. Joe Lombardo has begun issuing vetoes in earnest ahead of the end of the state’s 120-day legislative session, striking down measures ranging from gun control bills to mental health care reforms.

Already, as of Thursday, June 15, he has signed more than 400 bills and vetoed 32 others. Nearly 170 more await his decision.

With the Legislature’s biennial 120-day session over, this edition of the Indy Environment newsletter looks at what measures made it to the governor’s desk and what legislation did not.

Members of the Nevada Assembly on Wednesday amended the proposal to help fund a new Las Vegas baseball stadium for the Oakland A’s with up to $380 million in public funds.

Some were left behind as part of high-level deals between the governor and legislative leaders, and others were simply considered too fraught or too expensive to advance in the 120-day session.

After Senate Republicans blocked passage of the bill Monday night, a termed-out Sen. Scott Hammond (R-Las Vegas) reversed course Tuesday supporting the measure across the legislative finish line and sending it to Lombardo’s desk less than one day after the regular session ended.

Under Gov. Joe Lombardo’s proposal, the most significant portion of funding, nearly 44 percent of the state budget, is allocated to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Here’s a look at which bills have passed (and failed) ahead of Friday’s deadline.

AB400 includes a school choice expansion, an Office of School Choice, expansion of teacher training pipelines and re-implementation of provisions that would hold back elementary students who can't read at grade level.

“We all recognize the dire situation when a person is suffering from a mental health disorder,” said Assemblywoman Sarah Peters (D-Reno), who presented the bill, AB338, last month. “This bill is another tool in our toolbox addressing mental health disorders by opening the door that has been proven to help with a variety of conditions.”

In a party-line vote, the Assembly Natural Resources Committee advanced a proposal placing new environmental regulations on mines that form artificial lakes when extraction stops.

This week’s Indy Environment looks at proposed legislation aimed at everything from addressing the overuse of water to requiring the state to study environmental justice issues.

Major political donors in the health care and pharmaceutical industries pumped more than $1.3 million into legislative campaigns in the 2022 election cycle, ahead of a 2023 legislative session likely to be rife with fierce debate over health care issues. 

AB224, sponsored by Assemblywoman Sarah Peters (D-Reno) and co-sponsored by 26 other lawmakers, would allow professional staff at NSHE’s eight institutions to collectively bargain under a 2019 law creating a framework for public employee bargaining at the state and local levels. 

During the Legislature’s first-ever Environmental Justice Day, environmental advocacy organizations lobbied for legislation to address the way climate change disproportionately affects certain communities.

As the results for the midterm election pour in, Democrats appear to be maintaining control of the Legislature, but they will likely fall short of hoped-for supermajorities in either house.

Nevada leads the nation as the state with the largest number of women in its Legislature, and that is unlikely to change by the end of this election cycle. 

The filing period, which runs until March 18, is a major step for candidates to make their bids official, even though many already have announced intentions to run, started fundraising and held public events.

Community leaders note the growth of Nevada's minority populations and say that new district maps must reflect the state's increasing diversity.