The Nevada Association of Counties is gearing up for the 2023 session of the Nevada Legislature. Executive Director Vinson Guthreau visited the Board of Supervisors on Thursday to outline how NACO is protecting Carson City interests.
“Nevada’s counties both small and large have a lot of similar issues at the state, local, and federal level,” he said.
Those issues largely include funding – when the Legislature enacts new laws, often the duty falls to counties to implement those laws. It can be costly.
One example is Assembly Bill 424 that passed in 2021. Guthreau said the bill mandates pre-trial release hearings to be held within 48 hours after a citizen has been taken into custody. In turn, local courts have to find staff to cover weekend pre-trial hearings.
Guthreau reminded supervisors to keep track of new costs incurred for pre-trial hearings. NACO plans to lobby the Legislature to offset those new expenses.
“So much of what the state does impacts local government, and with so few legislators coming up through local government, they often don’t have a full picture of how their policy decisions might affect local government,” Guthreau said.
That’s partially why NACO also brought AB1 to the Legislature in 2021. The bill passed, and it requires that all newly-elected legislators receive training on local government operations.
NACO also helped pass AB2, which increased the number of governor-appointed boards that a qualified individual is allowed to sit on.
“This helped us to make sure that local representation was increased and present on these critical statewide boards,” Guthreau said.
Looking ahead to the 2023 legislative session, NACO is holding steady in its goal to appeal to the Legislature on behalf of Nevada’s local governments and counties.
Jennifer Berthiaume, NACO’s government affairs manager, said she is monitoring “unfunded mandates, the state budget, funding for indigent defense, rural CPS assessments, Medicaid match, any services the counties partner with the state on, and making sure any state services do not get pushed down to the local level.”
NACO is allowed to bring five bill draft requests to the Legislature in 2023. Berthiaume and Guthreau encouraged the supervisors to get involved in NACO’s meetings early to have a say in future lobbying.
