As the 2025 legislative session comes to an end, here’s a reminder that Joe Lombardo failed to do one of his most important, constitutionally-mandated jobs as governor: recommending a balanced state budget.
In January, Lombardo presented an unconstitutionally unbalanced budget that would have created a $335 million deficit, less than two weeks after touting fiscal responsibility during his State of the State address.
Lombardo later fired his budget director just days before his new $160 million state financial system – the one he was “proud to announce” going live on January 2 — failed to pay out critical state expenses, including child support and health savings account payments.
Earlier this year, Lombardo’s Department of Corrections announced that it has a more than $50 million hole in its budget. The Department of Corrections Director, who was appointed by Lombardo, said that the governor has known about the issues creating the budget shortfall since the beginning of 2023, which Lombardo failed to inform the Legislature of or address in his proposed budget.
To make matters worse, for the first time since the Great Recession the Economic Forum projected a decline in state revenue mid-Legislative Session. Weeks after Lombardo told reporters Nevadans need to “feel a little pain” from Trump’s tariffs, the forum determined that the decline in state revenue was in large part due to Trump’s reckless tariff policies.
This all adds to Lombardo’s growing history of fiscal irresponsibility and incompetence. In 2023, before vetoing legislation that would have lowered the cost of housing, he requested $25 million of taxpayer money to “go furniture shopping” for his office.
Nevada State Democratic Party Executive Director Hilary Barrett:
“Joe Lombardo’s incompetent handling of our state’s budget and finance systems has been atrocious. It is clear that the responsibility of leadership is too big for him. In the last five months, Lombardo has proposed a budget with an unconstitutional, nine-figure deficit, fired his budget director, rolled out a failing and costly new financial system that couldn’t pay out critical state expenses, and his Department of Corrections announced another multi-million dollar budget deficit. At a time when unemployment, food insecurity, and housing costs are on the rise and the Trump administration is cutting critical funding and instituting cost-raising tariffs, Lombardo failed to put forth a balanced budget that prioritizes working Nevadans.”
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