Latest news with #Bill391
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
At Lombardo's request, Hansen ‘reluctantly' blocks bill to rein in runaway corporate home ownership
Democratic state Sen. Dina Neal listens while her Republican colleague Ira Hansen explains he's reluctantly voting against her bill to limit hedge fund ownership of housing at Gov. Joe Lombardo's request. (Legislative stream screengrab) Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo asked the Republican legislative caucus to block a bill that attempts to limit cash-rich corporate investors from purchasing large swaths of housing in Nevada, Republican state Sen. Ira Hansen said on Tuesday. State lawmakers passed several bills on Friday that seek to bolster tenant protections and make changes to the eviction system, many of which were based on similar proposals that were vetoed by Lombardo in 2023. Democratic state Sen. Dina Neal also revived 2023 efforts vetoed by Lombardo to rein in corporate landlords. Senate Bill 391, which failed to pass Tuesday, proposed restricting corporate investors from purchasing more than 100 units per year. Unlike the other housing bills that passed this session, SB 391 needed a two-thirds majority to pass since it imposed fees. A yes vote from Hansen, who had supported the bill, would have given the legislation the 14 to 7 vote needed to meet the two-thirds threshold. Instead, the vote was 13 to 8. 'For the first time this session, I have actually been asked by the executive branch to support a caucus 'no' position, which I have agreed to do,' Hansen said in a floor speech Tuesday, adding he was doing so 'very reluctantly.' In an email to Nevada Current, Lombardo's press secretary Josh Meny said the governor was asked for input on SB 391 and 'voiced technical concerns with the initial draft of the legislation.' The efforts to block legislation is disappointing, especially since Nevada is in the middle of a housing crisis, Neal said. 'Going into today's vote, this bill had bipartisan support because preventing corporations from robbing Nevadans of the American Dream should be a bipartisan issue,' she said in a statement. 'The only reason it didn't pass is because of Gov. Lombardo's intervention. Senate Democrats will continue to fight to enact this bill and protect Nevadans from predatory out-of-state investors.' Hansen voted in support of Neal's 2023 bill. On Tuesday, he reaffirmed he still 'supported the concept' of the bill to do more to crack down on out-of-state investors, adding he was 'a little frustrated' that he had to vote against the legislation. He warned that private investors are buying up the housing in Nevada, adding that 'in Clark County 15% of all the residential housing is owned by hedge funds.' The estimate comes from Lied Center for Real Estate at the University of Nevada Las Vegas that found investors own roughly 15% of homes in the City of Las Vegas. Las Vegas Review Journal has reported that corporate investors purchased 264 homes in a single day for $98 million. Hansen said it creates a system where regular Nevadans are unable to purchase a home when up against out-of-state private equity investors. 'If me or a couple other ordinary people were bidding against Elon Musk, who is going to win that bidding war?' Hansen asked. Hansen said he hoped that 'some of the better elements' of Neal's bill 'could somehow be incorporated in the last waning days of the session.' In response to the state's growing housing shortage, Lombardo has brought forward Assembly Bill 540, which unanimously passed out of the Assembly Ways and Means committee Saturday. AB 540 seeks a $133 million budget request to establish a Nevada Attainable Housing Fund and Council. The legislation originally sought an allocation of $250 million in funding for housing projects. Christine Hess, the chief financial officer of the Nevada Housing Division, said during the bill's hearing in April that $50 million of the funds would be directed toward 'loans and will remain assets of the division's trust so that we can continue to issue the hundreds of millions of bonds annually for home ownership and multi-family rental housing.' The bill also proposed exempting projects from paying prevailing wages to construction workers that state law typically requires of publicly financed projects. In addition to reducing the dollar amount, the legislation removed language around the prevailing wage. 'Any plans to address our state's housing crisis, including the Governor's own housing bill, mean nothing if there are no guarantees or protections that support access or attainment,' said Ben Iness, coalition manager of the Nevada Housing Justice Alliance. 'Until the state of housing is taken seriously, Nevadans will continue to be squeezed and priced out of homes by large corporate interests.' That bulk of bills proposed by Democratic lawmakers that sought broader tenant protections and changes to the eviction process passed their final House in party-line votes on Friday. Those bills are now headed to Lombardo's desk, where similar versions of several of them met their demise two years ago. Assembly Bill 283, sponsored by Democratic Assemblymember Max Carter, once again, seeks to revise the summary eviction process. Nevada's 'summary' eviction system, which is unique to the state, allows landlords to evict tenants within days unless the tenant files a challenge to the eviction in court. Legal aid and housing groups have warned it has led to lightning quick evictions and worsened the state's housing crisis. State lawmakers initially introduced efforts to change the system in 2021 when they had a Democratic state government trifecta, but the legislation was converted to a study bill. When a reform bill passed in 2023, Lombardo killed it. Democratic Assemblymember Erica Roth of Reno also brought forward Assembly Bill 201 to expand efforts to automatically seal eviction records. Democratic Assemblywoman Venecia Considine also brought back efforts that were killed in 2023 via Assembly Bill 121, which seeks to add transparency to the rental application process. Considine also carried bills to address the state's habitation laws. Assembly Bill 211 allows a third party to take over the property until the repairs are made and living conditions improved. Assembly Bill 223 seeks to remedy the process and give tenants more power to hold landlords accountable for failing to provide livable conditions such as running water, working air conditioning, and a functioning lock on doors and windows. Legislation seeking to cap rent increases for seniors, which was revived by Democratic Assemblymember Sandra Jauregui, also passed out of its final house. Assembly Bill 280 would limit landlords from raising rents more than 5% on tenants 62 years or older or relies on Social Security payments through the end of 2026 and requires landlords to refund application fees if they don't screen a tenant who applied for the unit.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Nevada Legislature: Another deadline passes, another update on bills the Current is watching
Nevada Assembly Chambers in 2023 (Photo by Trevor Bexon / Nevada Current) Tuesday marked the 79th day of the 120-day Nevada State Legislative session. It was also the deadline by which non-exempt bills needed to pass the full Senate or full Assembly or be declared dead. For the small but mighty staff of the Nevada Current, it was a relatively quiet day. None of the dozens of bills we are watching met their demise. That's not wholly unsurprising. About half the bills we've written about have been exempted by the Legislature from standard deadlines because they come with fiscal notes and have been sent to the Legislature's money committees for consideration. Speaking of: The next major big day in Carson City is Thursday, May 1. That's when the Economic Forum will meet and potentially adjust the state's revenue forecast up or down. As we've noted throughout this session, there is reason to be concerned that the outlook won't be rosy. But as of right now, there's still hope. Here's a status check on all the bills we've written about (so far). We've included links to the bills themselves, as well as our prior coverage, so you can learn more about them. * Notes: Bills exempt from the legislative deadline are marked with an asterisk. Lead sponsors are listed in parentheses. Bills with no lead sponsor listed are sponsored by interim committees. Senate Bill 391* (State Sen. Dina Neal, D) would establish a corporate landlord registry and cap purchasing power for corporate owners. Status: Referred to Senate Judiciary, no hearing scheduled. Assembly Bill 121 (Assemblymember Venicia Considine, D) would require all non-optional fees, such as sewer and water, be listed in advertisements for rental properties. It would also require landlords to offer a way for tenants to pay rent without added processing fees. Status: Passed Assembly on party lines; 27 yeas 15 nays. Assembly Bill 201 (Assemblymember Erica Roth, D) would expand efforts to automatically seal eviction records. Status: Passed Assembly on party lines; 27 yeas 15 nays. Assembly Bill 211 (Assemblymember Venicia Considine, D) would allow a third party to take over the property until repairs are made and living conditions improved. Status: Passed Assembly; 41 yeas, 0 nays, 1 excused. Assembly Bill 223 (Assemblymember Venicia Considine, D) would give tenants more power to hold landlords accountable for failing to provide livable conditions. Status: Passed Assembly on party lines, 27 yeas 15 nays. Assembly Bill 280 (Assemblymember Sandra Jauregui, D) proposes rent stabilization for seniors. Status: Passed Assembly on party lines, 27 yeas 15 nays. Assembly Bill 283 (Assemblymember Max Carter, D) would restructure the eviction process. Status: Passed Assembly on party lines, 27 yeas 15 nays. Assembly Bill 437 (Assemblymember Jill Dickman, R) would establish a Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (FAIR) plan. Status: Placed on Chief Clerk's desk. Assembly Bill 475* would provide funding for eviction diversion programs in Clark and Washoe counties. Status: Heard by Assembly Ways and Means on April 4, no action taken since. Assembly Bill 540* (Gov. Joe Lombardo, R) would allocate $250 million to build more housing and expand the definition of affordable housing to include people with higher incomes. Status: Heard by Assembly Commerce and Labor on April 2, no action taken. Senate Bill 218 (State Sen. James Ohrenschall, D) would adopt the Uniform Antitrust Pre-Merger Notification Act, requiring companies to submit to the state attorney general the same notices and information they are already required to provide federal agencies prior to mergers or acquisitions. Status: Passed Senate on party lines; 12 yeas, 8 nays. Senate Bill 316* (State Sen. Rochelle Nguyen, D) would curb how much profit pharmacy benefit managers can make. Status: Referred to Senate Finance. Senate Bill 442 mandates utilities report the number of disconnections due to non-payment. Status: Passed Senate with bipartisan support, 17 yeas, 4 nays from Republicans. Assembly Bill 44 (Attorney General Aaron Ford, D) seeks to crack down on 'knowingly deceptive' price fixing. Status: Passed Assembly; 24 yeas, 18 nays. Three Democrats voted with Republicans in opposition. Assembly Bill 204* (Assemblymember Max Carter, D) would prevent collection agencies from threatening to arrest people for debt, obtain a lien against a primary residence, seek to foreclose on home, or garnish wages. Status: Referred to Assembly Ways and Means. Senate Bill 54* would require the state's Department of Health and Human Services to apply for a federal waiver and amend the state Medicaid plan to cover medical respite care for people experiencing homelessness. Status: Referred to Senate Finance. Senate Bill 244* (State Sen. Roberta Lange, D) would expand the types of obesity treatments covered by Nevada Medicaid, including approving weight-loss drugs like Ozempic for wider use. Status: Referred to Senate Finance. Senate Bill 353* (State Sen. Marilyn Dondero Loop, D) would increase Medicaid reimbursement for mental health providers. Status: Referred to Senate Finance. Senate Bill 217* (State Sen. Nicole Cannizzaro, D) would establish the right to assisted reproduction treatment, including in vitro fertilization. Status: Referred to Senate Finance. Assembly Bill 176 (Assemblymember Selena Torres-Fossett, D), known as the Right to Contraception Act, would strengthen protections against a state or local government burdening access to contraceptive measures. Status: Passed Assembly unanimously. Assembly Bill 235 (Assemblymember Erica Roth, D) protects employees and volunteers of reproductive health care facilities, as well as their spouses, domestic partners or minor children, by allowing them to request a court order that keeps their personal information confidential on otherwise public records within the offices of county recorder, county assessor, county clerk, city clerk, Secretary of State, or Department of Motor Vehicles. Status: Passed Assembly; 33 yeas, 9 nays. Six Republicans supported. Assembly Bill 411 (Assemblymember Sandra Jauregui, D) would allow prescriptions for drugs used for medical abortions and miscarriage management to list the name of the prescribing health care practice, rather than the name of the specific individual providing the prescription. Status: Passed Assembly; 26 yeas, 15 nays, 1 excused. Senate Bill 172* (Sen. Edgar Flores, D) seeks to bolster protections for farm workers and amend overtime pay laws to include agriculture workers. Status: Referred to Senate Finance. Senate Bill 260* (Sen. Edgar Flores, D) seeks to ensure that outdoor workers receive protection when air quality reaches unhealthy levels due to wildfire smoke. Status: Referred to Senate Finance. Assembly Bill 112 (Assemblymember Duy Nguyen, D) would allow workers covered by collective bargaining agreements to use their accrued leave to care for family members. Status: Passed Assembly; 29 yeas, 13 nays. Two Republicans voted with Democrats in support. Assembly Bill 191* (Assemblymember Natha Anderson, D) would give graduate assistants the right to collectively bargain for better pay and conditions. Status: Referred to Assembly Ways and Means. Assembly Bill 388* (Assemblymember Selena La Rue Hatch, D) would require private employers with more than 50 workers, as well as all public employers, to provide paid family and medical leave. Status: Referred to Assembly Ways and Means. Assembly Bill 502* would boost the state's ability to investigate and enforce prevailing wage violations. Status: Referred to Assembly Ways and Means. Senate Bill 431* would apply the state's live entertainment tax to tickets resold by third-party vendors and dedicate some funding to transit. Status: Referred to Senate Finance. Assembly Joint Resolution 1* (Assemblymember Natha Anderson, D) would let voters in 2028 decide whether the taxable value of property should reset when a home is sold. Status: Passed Assembly; 26 yeas, 16 nays. Democrat Brittney Miller joined Republicans in opposition. Assembly Joint Resolution 8 (Assemblymember Joe Dalia, D) would let voters in 2028 decide whether Nevada should establish a dedicated business court with the goal of enticing large companies to incorporate here. Status: Passed Assembly with bipartisan support; 40 yeas, 2 nays. Democrats Selena La Rue Hatch and Erica Roth opposed. Assembly Bill 256 (Assemblymember Selena La Rue Hatch, D) would create a Regional Rail Transit Advisory Working Group to assess the need for a regional rail system in the state's largest metro areas, as well as potential funding sources for such a system. Status: Passed Assembly unanimously. Assembly Bill 276* (Assemblymember P.K. O'Neill, R) would adjust the commerce tax threshold to inflation. Status: Referred to Assembly Ways and Means. Assembly Bill 277 (Assemblymember Rich DeLong, R) would make the Net Proceeds of Minerals Bulletin public again. Status: Passed Assembly unanimously.. Assembly Bill 530 would allow the Clark County Commission to extend fuel revenue indexing (FRI) an additional decade beyond its current sunset date. Status: Passed Assembly with bipartisan support; 39 yeas, 3 nays. Republicans Jill Dickman, Danielle Gallant, and Gregory Hafen were opposed. Senate Bill 69 (Storey County) would require companies seeking massive tax abatements to enter into agreements to defray the costs of the government-provided services they would require. Status: Passed Senate with bipartisan support; 17 yeas, 4 nays. Four Republicans opposed. Assembly Bill 185 (Assemblymember Natha Anderson) would bar most HOAs from prohibiting licensed home-based childcare operations within their communities. Status: Passed Assembly with bipartisan support; 32 yeas, 10 nays. A third of the Republican caucus supported. Assembly Bill 238* (Assemblymember Sandra Jauregui, D) is known as the Nevada Studio Infrastructure Jobs and Workforce Training Act. It massively expands the state's film tax credit program to support a production studio in Summerlin in Las Vegas. Status: Referred to Assembly Ways and Means. Senate Bill 220* (State Sen. Roberta Lange, D) is known as the Nevada Film Infrastructure, Workforce Development, Education and Economic Diversification Act. It massively expands the state's film tax credit program to support a production studio in southwest Las Vegas. Status: Referred to Senate Finance. Assembly Bill 376* (Assemblymember P.K. O'Neill, R) would create a 'regulatory sandbox' for the insurance industry. Status: Referred to Assembly Ways and Means. Assembly Bill 457* (Assemblymember Venicia Considine, D) seeks to close a potential loophole that can be used by corporate landlords to avoid paying the state's commerce tax. Status: Passed Assembly on party lines; 27 yeas 15 nays. Assembly Bill 487 would ban retail pet sales statewide. Status: Passed Assembly with bipartisan support; 32 yeas, 9 nays, 1 excused. Six of the chamber's 15 Republicans supported. Senate Bill 318* (State Sen. Skip Daly, D) would ban charter schools from contracting with for-profit education management organizations. Status: Referred to Senate Finance. Assembly Bill 217 would prohibit school employees from granting permission to immigration officers to enter a school, or provide student records, including information on a student's family, without a warrant. Status: Passed Assembly; 31 yeas, 11 nays. Four Republicans joined Democrats in support. Assembly Bill 224* (Assemblymember Erica Mosca, D) would dedicate $100 million in state general obligation bonds for high-needs school construction projects in low-population counties that cannot fund them through typical means. Status: Referred to Assembly Ways and Means. Assembly Bill 441 (Assemblymember Daniele Monroe-Moreno, D) would change how Opportunity Scholarships are administered. Status: Passed Assembly on party lines; 27 yeas 15 nays. Senate Bill 88* would discharge medical debt from those incarcerated once they leave prison. Status: Referred to Senate Finance. Assembly Bill 91* (Assemblymember Erica Roth, D) is known as 'second look' legislation and would create an avenue for those incarcerated to have sentences reviewed by the State Board of Parole Commissioners after they've served extended periods of time. Status: Referred to Assembly Ways and Means. Assembly Bill 111 (Assemblymember Brian Hibbetts, R) would make driving the wrong way a misdemeanor crime. Status: Passed Assembly unanimously. Assembly Bill 119 (Assemblymember Steve Yeager, D) seeks to crack down on paramilitary organizing and activities. Status: Passed Assembly on party lines; 27 yeas 15 nays. Assembly Bill 320* (Assemblymember Jovan Jackson, D) seeks to stop judges from using dress codes to turn away defendants. Status: Referred to Assembly Ways and Means. Assembly Bill 381* (Assemblymember Melissa Hardy, R) is known as Reba's Law and mandates prison time for killing a domestic animal. Status: Passed Assembly Judiciary. Assembly Bill 402* (Assemblymember Selena Torres-Fossett, D) would authorize traffic monitoring cameras in construction work zones when workers are present. Status: Referred to Assembly Ways and Means. Senate Bill 457 (Gov. Joe Lombardo, R) is known as the Safe Streets and Neighborhoods Act. Status: Referred to Senate Judiciary, no hearing scheduled. Senate Bill 199* (State Sen. Dina Neal, D) — would establish guardrails around artificial intelligence. Status: Referred to Senate Finance. Assembly Bill 96 would mandate that cities and counties with populations exceeding 100,000 people include 'heat mitigation' as part of their master plans. Status: Passed Assembly; 29 yeas, 13 nays. Republicans Gregory Koenig and Toby Yurek voted with Democrats in support. Assembly Bill 460* (Assemblymember Cecelia González) streamlines the process for selecting a temporary guardian for minors prior to any immigration action. Status: Referred to Assembly Ways and Means.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
With families getting priced out, NV legislators tackle corporate ownership of housing market
The full extent of corporate ownership of single-family homes in Nevada is unknown. (Photo by Ronda Churchill for Nevada Current) Nevada state lawmakers are once again considering tracking and limiting the purchasing power of cash-rich corporate investors, which many believe are inflating the housing market and pricing out middle-class families. 'There are actual families who do want the American Dream,' said Democratic state Sen. Dina Neal during a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting Wednesday. 'They want to take their pharmacy job, they want to take their teaching job, and they want to translate that money into a mortgage. They want to own a home, and they're not actually able to do that in this current market.' Neal believes the Legislature could help families like that by establishing a corporate landlord registry and restricting the number of single-family housing units that can be purchased by corporate investors. She is proposing both in Senate Bill 391, which passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. SB391 mirrors a 2023 bill Neal sponsored that was vetoed by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, with one notable difference: The vetoed bill would have limited corporate purchases to 1,000 units a year. This year's bill would limit corporate ownership to 100 a year. To explain that change, Neal recalled that, shortly after the last legislative session ended, the Las Vegas Review Journal reported that corporate investors purchased 264 homes in a single day for $98 million. 'I was like, I really need to drop this number because it's amazing that someone in one day could buy 265 homes and not bat an eye,' she said. Neal said she believes the state has the power to temporarily cap corporate investors during a housing crisis. The Lied Center for Real Estate at the University of Nevada Las Vegas has estimated that investors own roughly 15% of homes in the City of Las Vegas. That percentage is expected to grow both in Nevada and across the country. The full extent of corporate ownership of single-family homes in Nevada is unknown. Companies often have multiple LLCs with nondescript names. The registry component of SB391 would provide more transparency, said Neal. State Sen. Ira Hansen, the only Republican to vote for Neal's bill in 2023, is again supporting the proposal. 'If Senator Ellison and Senator Hansen and Senator Krasner all want to buy the same house, we bid against each other' around market value, he said. 'But what if you're bidding against somebody who can … very comfortably very easily push it to a million dollars and win the bid? That's what's happening in these markets.' Hansen said Neal and the bill are up against 'corporations that have literally unlimited resources to hire lobbyists and influence legislators.' 'All the policy people are going to be like 'we can't interfere with the free market,'' he said. 'This isn't the free market. This is an artificially manipulated market.' Making each rental property its own LLC is often is a way to protect owners from legal liability. And, for large corporations with thousands of properties, the practice could also be shielding them from paying Nevada's commerce tax. Democratic Assemblymember Venicia Considine's Assembly Bill 457 wants to close that loophole. The bill proposes that if there is a controlling owner whose LLCs combined would meet the state's threshold for paying the commerce tax, then those LLCs must be aggregated into what's known as a 'combined taxpayer group' that is subject to the tax. Businesses with gross revenue exceeding $4 million in a taxable year are subject to Nevada's commerce tax. Only revenue above the $4 million threshold is taxed. The concept of aggregating business entities that have the same controlling owner for tax purposes exists in other states, including Ohio and Pennsylvania, as well as at the federal level. AB457 requires approval by two-thirds of both legislative houses because it would potentially raise state revenue. But Considine and Legislative Counsel Bureau staff acknowledged in the bill's Assembly Revenue Committee hearing Tuesday that they have no estimate of how much it would bring in. The assemblymember framed the proposal as being driven less by revenue and more by tax fairness.. 'As businesses they should be paying the commerce taxes that other businesses that meet the commerce tax are paying,' she said. It's a cause Considine has taken up before. In 2023 she sponsored a bill to remove an existing exemption in the state commerce tax for real estate investment trusts, REITs. That bill passed the full Assembly and a Senate committee but was not given a vote by the full Senate. Considine said that in 2019 three entities, which owned a combined 8,000 homes, were known as the landlords with the highest number of maintenance issues and evictions. She referenced studies that have found a correlation between how far away landlords are and how many units they have and 'community-level issues' like maintenance problems. Hedge funds, private equity firms and other corporate investors are commodifying the housing market, she added. 'They are buying in bulk without investing in communities.' The Assembly Revenue Committee took no action on AB457. The bill is exempt from standard deadlines, meaning lawmakers have additional time to move it through the Legislature. Democratic state Sen. Edgar Flores introduced a third proposal to limit the purchasing power of corporate investors. Senate Bill 242 would prohibit investment companies from purchasing residential properties unless they have been listed on the market for at least 30 days. The bill, which was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee in late February, has not been given a hearing.
