The Nevada Legislature Building in Carson City on Tuesday, July 14, 2020.
Photo: David Calvert / The Nevada Independent
Treasurer Zach Conine told the Assembly Ways and Means Committee on Friday that SB430 contains a $75 million appropriation to get the Infrastructure Bank up and running.
The bank was created by the 2017 Legislature in anticipation of federal infrastructure funding. But that funding never materialized.
Conine said Gov. Steve Sisolak agreed to put the money in this bill to get the program running.
Several members questioned the inclusion of “social infrastructure” in the plan but Conine said at least initially, the bank would deal with traditional infrastructure projects such as water and sewer upgrades. He said one factor in deciding who gets the loans is the ability of the project to repay the loans.
Conine said that way, the money could be loaned out again to pay for more projects.
“The intention is not to have an appropriation every Legislature,” he said. “It’s not a grant program.”
The social infrastructure projects, he said, are going to be riskier because it’s less likely they’ll have a revenue stream to pay the money back.
Assembly Majority Leader Teresa Benitez-Thompson, D-Reno, pointed to the Federal New Market Tax Credits saying that program had to forgive, “a bunch of loans that couldn’t be paid back.”
“We expect to make very boring loans that will be paid back,” Conine said.
Some, like affordable housing, though, would have a revenue stream. And Conine said initially, a lot of the loans will go to local efforts and be used to leverage other money.
The committee took no action on SB430.
