O’Neill says he wants economic diversity for Nevada

P.K. O’Neill

P.K. O’Neill

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Nevada Assemblyman P.K. O’Neill, who represents District 40 including Carson City, told the Appeal on Friday he wants to promote the governor’s vision for the state as the Legislature convenes Feb. 3.

The 73-year-old Republican said generally, his priority is “to promote the governor’s major plans of expanding our economic diversification and attracting more businesses and workers, employees and employers into Nevada.”

Gov. Joe Lombardo is also a Republican facing a state Assembly and Senate with Democrat majorities. O’Neill will be returning for his fourth session no longer minority leader. He said he stepped down from the position due to serious shoulder surgery, adding he “knew from experience it (minority leader) takes an exorbitant amount of time.”

O’Neill was nonetheless enthused to describe a vision of Nevada with low taxes and business innovation, a place where people want to start businesses and raise families. To that effect, he said he’s championing a bill to tie the commerce tax exemption threshold for small businesses — currently under $4 million in gross revenue a year — to a consumer price index for western states to keep pace with inflation.

“We intended to keep small businesses out (of the commerce tax),” he said, adding it was meant for larger businesses like Walgreens, Costco and Walmart to pay “the appropriate taxation.”

O’Neill said he will also support a nursing compact, as he did in the last session, that would allow nurses to move between compact states without reapplying for licensure. The measure failed in 2023, but O’Neill did sponsor a similar bill for EMTs that passed. He said Nevada needs health care workers, electricians, plumbers, contractors, psychologists, psychiatrists and teachers.

“We are a growing state, and we need a growing workforce,” he said.

Moving to public safety, O’Neill said he supports a measure to allow law enforcement, during warranted wiretap investigations, to record conversations with suspected child sex offenders, strengthening cases against them. He said currently, investigators can only take notes of conversations, and those summaries don’t always hold up in court.

O’Neill also wants to work on enabling Federal Firearms License (LLF) gun dealers to temporarily store weapons for people who are suicidal. Such storage would be voluntary on the part of the gun owner, he said. A proposed bill would indemnify gun dealers but also “promote storage of firearms.” He said the measure has been used in other states for veterans.

“I was thinking let’s just take it beyond veterans and make it universal for you and me and anyone else,” he said, hoping to reduce suicides.

O’Neill said he gets 10 bill draft requests (BDRs) a session. Some of those had not been filed as bills as of Friday. More information: leg.state.nv.us/App/legislator/a/assembly/current/40.