By Mark Skousen, Nevada News & Views, June 28, 2024
During the pandemic in 2020, Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak shut down the entire state. Las Vegas was a ghost town. We were forced to cancel FreedomFest that year, although later in the year we held a “mini-FreedomFest” at the Ahern Hotel, whose owner defied the Covid restrictions.
When Sisolak allowed businesses and casinos to open again several months later, the state required masks and vaccines (that didn’t keep you from getting the virus). Gone was the libertarian philosophy that Nevada was famous for. I was shocked how the big gambling organizations and hotel chains caved to the governor’s draconian rules.
We had had enough, and in 2021, we moved FreedomFest to South Dakota and attracted 2,700 attendees, a record. Our people loved the freedom that South Dakota offered.
Sisolak was a typical authoritarian governor, and fortunately lost to the Republican candidate in 2022, Joe Lombardo.
Lombardo has been a breath of fresh air. He was the only candidate in the country to unseat an incumbent governor of either party, and he is proving why.
He wrote in last week’s New York Times op-ed…
“When I took office, Nevada was grappling with the economic hangover of the pandemic. In the following months, we lowered our main business tax by 15%, vetoed tax increases, eliminated red tape through executive orders and empowered the Governor’s Office of Economic Development to create competitive incentive packages. The results: We generated $5 billion in new private-sector economic investment, led the nation in annual job growth and created thousands of new jobs in our state.”
Gov. Joe Lombardo has set a new record for the most vetoes issued in a single legislative session, with the first-term Republican rejecting 75 bills passed by the Democrat-controlled Legislature.
While California is suffering from high unemployment and rising inflation, Nevada is booming.
One of the biggest challenges in Nevada and around the country is the high cost of housing on top of high mortgage rates.
To solve this problem, Governor Lombardo wants Biden to release federal lands. He writes…
“I have been calling for new and speedier processes to transfer federal land in urban areas into state and private hands for attainable housing development for the past year, but the president has instead focused on further restricting the use of land in Nevada by unilaterally designating a national monument 500,000 acres in size — two and a half times the size of New York City, including all five boroughs.”
That’s room for up to 335,000 new homes.
I’m thrilled to announce that Gov. Joe Lombardo will give the opening address on Wednesday, July 10, at the new Caesars Forum Convention Center. Can’t wait. He is making a difference in restoring freedom and prosperity to the Silver State. See Home – FreedomFest.
Mr. Skousen is an American economist and producer of FreedomFest, “The World’s Largest Gathering of Free Minds,” on July 10-13, 2024, in Las Vegas