Opening remarks
How hot is it?
These past few weeks have been HOT, and not just in Nevada. Europe is facing record temperatures, heat advisories are in place for a third of the country and as of today, there have been 38,724 fires that have burned over 5.6 million acres in this year alone. This heat is no joke, though local news stations do their best to make you laugh.
To help stay cool, we at TCS believe in elevation therapy. The Tom Clark Solutions team are avid outdoor enthusiasts. Part of why we love living in Nevada are the outdoor recreation opportunities. Some wonderful upcoming events that celebrate Nevada's outdoors we encourage you to attend are
You can find more outdoor events happening in Nevada on the state's fantastic tourism website, TravelNevada.com and for more information on what's happening in the outdoor recreation sphere, check out the stories below.
Keep cool out there!
Important Dates
| General Early Voting | October 22 – November 4 |
| General Election | Tuesday November 8, 2022 |
ICYMI
Cook Political Report rates Nevada with a R+1 Partisan Voter Index for 2022. What does this mean? Cook Political anticipates Nevada will perform about one point more Republican than the nation will this November. Nevada’s 2021 Cook PVI score was “even,” meaning Nevada performed within half a point of the nation in either direction.
GOP Group Endorses Nevada's Democratic Attorney General, Aaron Ford
Specifically, thirteen Nevada Republicans announced a new coalition on Monday to endorse Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford in his re-election bid against their party’s nominee, Sigal Chattah, a right-wing candidate who bested a more moderate Republican primary contender.
OUTDOOR RECREATION
Biden Administration Reestablishes Federal Interagency Council on Outdoor Recreation
Last week, the Biden Administration announced the revival of the FICOR. First created in 2011 under the Obama Administration, the FICOR is tasked with improving access to nature, expanding outdoor recreation opportunities, and providing the public with improved and more affordable experiences on America’s public lands and waters. Previous accomplishments include the creation of recreation.gov, publishing the first economic impact analysis of the outdoor industry, and establishing Every Kid Outdoors Pass (of which Nevada has a similar pass, thanks to the passage of AB385 from the 2017 Legislative session).
Increasing access to outdoor recreation is one of the six areas of focus outlined in President Biden’s America the Beautiful Initiative. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the outdoor recreation economy generates $689 billion in consumer spending and provides 4.3 million direct jobs across the country. In Nevada, the OR economy contributes $4.0 billion to the Nevada’s GDP, provides nearly 50,000 jobs in the state and is one of a handful of states with a dedicated outdoor recreation office.
Nevada State Parks accepting recreation trails grant project pre-applications
Nevada Division of State Parks is currently accepting grant project pre-applications in anticipation of the 2023 Federal Highway Administration funding of the Recreational Trails Program. RTP funding may be awarded to counties, municipalities, state and federal agencies, nonprofit organizations, and Native American tribal governments for the purpose of constructing and/or maintaining motorized and non-motorized outdoor recreational trails, trailhead amenities, and trailside signage.
Submittal of a pre-application is required to determine project eligibility. Eligible pre-applicants will be encouraged to submit full funding proposals in the fall of 2022. Pre-applications are due by Monday, August 22, 2022. For more information, visit the Recreational trails Program webpage.
Groups get $45k for maintenance on Lake Tahoe’s popular trails
The state has acquired more than 10 acres in the upper Kingsbury area to ensure the long-term management and protection of natural habitat for native plant and wildlife species in Lake Tahoe, and to help reduce wildfire risks, officials announced earlier this week.
The new conservation area connects to backcountry forests managed by the USDA Forest Service, creating a contiguous undeveloped corridor for wildlife to migrate and forage in. In the coming years, the Nevada Department of Wildlife will conduct surveys on the property to learn more about its biodiversity and determine short and long-term restoration needs and strategies.
ECONOMY
Nevada breaks record, regains all jobs lost during pandemic
State officials announced last week that Nevada added a record 7,600 jobs in June and is up 90,400 jobs since June 2021, an annual increase of 6.6 percent that ranks as the best in the nation. The U.S. as a whole is still down 500,000 jobs from its peak.
While this is good news, the leisure and hospitality sector is still lagging behind at 90.7 percent of its prepandemic peak and is still looking to recover 33,800 jobs from its peak in February 2020. Nevada’s unemployment rate fell, but remains one of the worst in the country. The state unemployment rate in June was 4.7 percent, down 0.2 percentage points from May and down 2.5 percentage points compared with June 2021. However, only the District of Columbia (5.5 percent) and New Mexico (4.9) rank lower than Nevada.
Harry Reid International Airport set a new record in June for passengers in a single month, beating a record of 4,609,3128 passengers in October 2019. A total of 4,683,156 passengers arrived to and departed from the airport in June this year, a 22.9% increase from June 2021.
The majority of passengers were domestic, with international travelers only making up 244,033 of the total. In 2022, the airport has already seen 24,279,867 passengers, a 52.4% increase from 15,933,853 passengers this time last year.
ENVIRONMENT
Reducing consumptive water use must be our main focus to safeguard Southern Nevada’s economic stability
Nat Hodgson with the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association has an interesting opinion piece in the Nevada Independent. The home building industry, for example, has answered its calls of responsibility. In addition to the frequent installation of the most water efficient indoor fixtures in the market today, it should be noted that truly wasteful consumptive water use, such as front yard turf lawn installation, has been eliminated from new home building for nearly 20 years.
In 2022, a study from Applied Analysis sought to show how water use among residential properties in Southern Nevada has evolved over time. The results indicated that newer homes are much more efficient in water use when compared to older properties, which is even more telling when coupled with the fact that homes built in 2019 are larger than older homes. The study showed newly built homes used approximately 38.3 gallons per square foot compared to 75.9 gallons per square foot for older homes – a nearly 50 percent reduction.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Clark County land swap bill derails in Senate, passage unlikely this year
The problem: Clark County is running out of developable land and the federal government owns ~87% of all the land in the county.
The solution: Transfer ownership of 25,000 acres from the federal government to the county via the Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act, commonly known as the “Clark County lands bill.”
The reality: The Clark County lands bill is not dead, but passage this year appears unlikely as the legislative clock runs down and Congress prepares to leave for an August recess.
“I negotiated to get this piece of legislation bipartisan support, and the county decided to oppose our compromise, so this legislation isn’t moving forward at this time,” Cortez Masto, D-Nev., said in a statement to the Review-Journal.
What we’re doing this Interim
The 2021 Nevada Legislature passed Assembly Bill 443, Legislation that fundamentally changed the way the Legislature operates between Sessions. The newly formed Interim Standing Committees have begun meeting, hearing overviews of their mission and setting agendas for the next eleven months.
Click here to view a list of upcoming Joint Interim Standing Committee meetings.
Click here to view the list of Bill Draft Requests (BDRs) for the upcoming 2023 Legislative Session.
2021 Redistricting Maps
The new boundaries would give 14 of the 21 state Senate districts and 27 of the 42 Assembly districts a voter registration advantage for Democrats over Republicans of more than 4.5 percent.
The Nevada Independent
Please see the links below to view the new district lines for Nevada Assembly, Senate and Congressional delegation.