Foreward

For decades, Americans viewed Nevada as a land of promise. They voted with their feet by moving to our state in droves to pursue a better life. From 1950 to 2010, Nevada was the fastest growing state in the union by a landslide. Her population grew by 1,587% in that time while the second-fastest growing state – Arizona – grew at less than half that pace.

Recently, though, our rate of growth has begun to slow. Between 2010 and 2020, Idaho, North Dakota, Texas and Utah all grew at a faster pace than Nevada. The Census Bureau estimates 12 states grew faster than Nevada between 2020 and 2023, with Idaho, South Carolina, Florida and Texas have experiencing the fastest growth.

I can’t help but wonder if the changing policy environment is what has inspired Americans to begin seeing other states as more opportune than our beloved home. Over the past 20 years, we’ve had the three largest tax hikes in state history. We have extended the powers of union leaders to control state and local budgets. We have shut down reliable power sources and replaced them with more expensive and less reliable alternatives. We have tried and failed to enact school choice, while our public schools have simultaneously grown more expensive and less fruitful. We have allowed politicians to pick winners and losers in the economy. We have manipulated healthcare markets in ways that made care less accessible. And we have repeatedly witnessed a blatant disregard for the separation of powers principles designed to safeguard our republic from despotism.

These challenges are numerous. Fortunately, there is a pathway in all these areas to restore the Silver State’s shine so that it is again viewed as the place offering the greatest opportunities. This book was created to do just that. It reviews the legislative history and available data on each of these topics and makes specific recommendations for how each of these challenges might be resolved. We expect this volume to be seized upon by any lawmaker for whom home means Nevada.
I’d like to thank Geoffrey Lawrence, who created the original version of this book prior to the 2013 legislative session and has updated and expanded it many times. He has worked tirelessly on this new and expanded volume over the past few months and I am thrilled with the result.

As always, I hope you will consider these ideas on their merits, regardless of where your political sympathies may lie. This volume dispels many myths and presents concrete data from objective sources. I believe it elevates the public-policy debate in the Silver State, and that, after all, is why Nevada Policy exists.

John Tsarpalas
President