Governor Joe Lombardo is at the halfway point of his term and Nevadans are increasingly suffering the consequences of the policies and decisions he made in his first two years in office. When it comes to housing, health care, education and public safety, Nevadans are measurably worse off due to the actions of Lombardo and his commitment to prioritizing powerful special interests and his own political self-interest.
Nevada Faces One of the Worst Housing Crises in the Nation, Worsened by Joe Lombardo’s Veto of Affordable Housing Legislation
On housing, Lombardo vetoed affordable housing legislation that would have helped keep rent costs down for vulnerable Nevadans on a fixed income, prevented landlords from abusing tenants by adding transparency in rental processes and cracking down on junk fees, and kept more people in their homes and off the streets. Lombardo’s actions protecting special interests’ profits over those of everyday Nevadans are no surprise given that his gubernatorial election was bankrolled by a billionaire slumlord who operates a chain of short-term housing complexes across Clark County. The devastating results of Lombardo’s vetoes have been stark, yet predictable.
- In 2023, on Lombardo’s watch, there were more than 30,000 evictions in Clark County. That number jumped to nearly 50,000 evictions in 2024 after his policies began taking their toll – a 34% increase over the pre-pandemic average. Last year, Clark County had the fourth most evictions of any major city in the country, racking up more evictions than there were for many states as a whole, including larger states like Missouri, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
- The Clark County annual homeless survey for 2024 found that there was a 20% spike in homelessness over 2023, with more homeless people in Las Vegas than in any year since 2011.
- In Reno, the median price of a single-family home has increased more than 40% since before the pandemic.
- According to one study by NBC News, at the end of 2024, it was difficult for 67% of families in Washoe County and 70% of families of Clark County to buy homes.
After Vetoing Legislation To Lower Prescription Costs, Joe Lombardo Received Nearly $100,000 From Big Drug Companies
Lombardo further contributed to the affordability crisis when he vetoed legislation that would have lowered the cost of certain prescription drugs for all Nevadans to the cheaper rates negotiated by Medicare. In doing so, he decidedly took the side of the big drug companies, choosing their profits over lowering costs for Nevadans. Because of Lombardo’s veto, many Nevadans below the age of 65 suffering from diabetes, heart disease, arthritis and cancer will have to keep paying the elevated prices for their life-saving medications.
- The number of Nevadans under 65 who may be paying more because of Lombardo include:
- Even before Lombardo’s pro-pharma veto, 1/3 of Nevadans reported not being able to afford to fill or take a prescription as prescribed.
- According to a survey conducted by the CDC, health care in Nevada was 42% less affordable than the national average during the first year of Lombardo’s term, based on the number of people who reported needing to see a doctor but could not because of the cost.
A report found that after vetoing AB250, Joe Lombardo received nearly $100,000 in campaign cash from big drug companies. Prior to his veto, which cited “many arguments made by the [pharmaceutical] industry,” Lombardo had only received $11,000 from pharma interests.
Parents in Nevada Owe Tens Of Thousands of Dollars in School Lunch Debt As Students Go Hungry After Joe Lombardo Vetoed Bill to Guarantee School Meals
Despite billing himself as the “Education Governor,” Lombardo’s record on the issue has also increased costs for families while potentially leaving students hungry and struggling to achieve. When Lombardo vetoed AB319, he ended a program guaranteeing universal access to nutritious meals at school, meaning that some students will inevitably go hungry at school, something that can make a sizable impact on students’ educational attainment, specifically by improving student health and attendance, reducing disciplinary infractions, and increasing test scores among marginalized groups of students. To add insult to injury, Lombardo’s excuse for cruelly taking food out of kids’ mouths, where he claimed school meals are “thrown away” by kids in “well-to-do neighborhoods,” was found to be false by an independent factcheck. Though the long-term damage of Lombardo’s veto will take years to play out, the short-term harm is already being felt.
- Students in 35 schools across just Washoe County students lost access to guaranteed nutritious meals at school.
- The Washoe County School District had to drain $160,000 from a savings account in order to help families transition to the new reality of Lombardo having ended universal access to school meals.
- Families in Washoe County and Carson City have accumulated over $60,000 in school lunch debt in just the first half of this year.
- GoFundMe campaigns have had to be created to help feed their students affected by Lombardo’s veto.
- An estimated one in five children in Nevada face hunger.
- Beyond just students, food insecurity has been on the rise in Nevada under Joe Lombardo’s Governorship. According to one report that includes data from Clark, Nye, Esmerelda and Lincoln counties, 341,480 people, or one in seven, were food insecure. Food insecurity rates increased from 12% in 2022 to 14.7% in 2023.
Joe Lombardo Voted Against Police Pay Raises, Lied About Threat of Ghost Guns in Communities
Students aren’t the only group Lombardo has tried to harm. In 2023, despite having run on his record in law enforcement, Lombardo voted against the Nevada Police Union’s collective bargaining agreement that included critical pay and benefit increases for officers. Though he was outvoted, Lombardo opposed the more generous CBA for state troopers despite their facing critical and dangerous staffing shortages caused by low pay. After that, Joe Lombardo further stiffed Nevada Police Union members by ordering that they and other state employees who were working under collective bargaining agreements wouldn’t be receiving longevity payments under AB522 of up to $1,027.
- At the time of Lombardo’s moves to deprive state troopers of better and deserved benefits, a state trooper could expect to make about $400,000 less than their Metro counterpart over a 20-year career. Data from the Department of Public Safety revealed 123 out of 389 sworn-officer positions needed to be filled in 2023, with patrols often being short staffed and traffic fatalities rising.
Prior to his anti-public safety vote against better pay for State Police, Lombardo was caught having lied while courting the far-right gun lobby on the campaign trail in 2021, when he significantly downplayed the number of untraceable, unregulated weapons known as ghost guns confiscated by law enforcement in Las Vegas. Lombardo doubled down on that lie when he vetoed legislation that would have cracked down on ghost guns, falsely claiming that the bill didn’t “pass constitutional muster,” less than a year before the Nevada Supreme Court upheld a previous law that was even more direct in cracking down on ghost guns.
- Lombardo claimed that Las Vegas police only “had six incidences with ghost guns” since summer of 2020 when, in reality, over 250 dangerous ghost guns had been taken off the streets of Las Vegas over that period.
From housing to health care to education and public safety, the data and facts reveal the same truth: Joe Lombardo’s actions as governor are doing very real and serious harm to Nevada’s citizens. Time and time again, he has proven that he is opposed to lowering costs if it means preventing lower profits for his corporate special interest backers. Couple this reality with his record of ethics scandals, undermining ethics enforcement in the state, and flouting bipartisan precedent to embrace dark money, and it becomes clear that in his first two years in office, Governor Lombardo has always put himself and his political career above what’s best for Nevada.
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