Last week, the Trump Administration issued a late night federal funding freeze that could starve state agencies, public programs, and non-profits doing critical work across Nevada of the funding they need to keep serving those most in need. Federal funding accounts for over 37% of the state’s budget and provides millions of dollars for local governments, our court systems, and local nonprofits. Potential Trump cuts to Medicaid would also create a budget crisis for the state and threaten health care coverage for over one million Nevadans. 

This comes after Joe Lombardo fired the state’s budget director after Lombardo presented an unconstitutionally unbalanced budget during his State of the State address days after touting fiscal responsibility and troubling details emerged about how the new state finance system that Lombardo bragged about in his State of the State address earlier this month has been suffering from significant issues. 

Despite this, Joe Lombardo is putting Donald Trump’s agenda, and his own political self-interest, above what’s best for Nevadans and has refused to put hardworking families first by calling on the Trump Administration to rescind its harmful, and illegal, order. 

Read more below: 

Nevada Current: Lawmakers: Trump policies could tank Nevada revenue, create state budget crisis

2/7/25

• The state budgeting process began with a $335 million oopsie, and while it may have been resolved, a potentially much larger fiscal crisis looms: the Trump administration.

• State lawmakers in the early days of the 2025 Legislative Session are warning that actions being taken by President Donald Trump through a deluge of executive orders, as well as legislation being considered by the Republican-controlled Congress, may have a disastrous effect on Nevada.

• Democrats took issue with some of the mechanisms the governor’s office used to balance the budget–specifically, turning some funding that had been proposed as ongoing expenses and into one-time funding. 

• When setting the state’s revenue projections in December, Nevada’s Economic Forum acknowledged that some of Trump’s more grandiose campaign promises had the potential to significantly change the economic outlook.

• Those concerns have not assuaged since his inauguration.

• (State Sen.) Neal theorized that people may buckle down on spending “because they’re not understanding what is going to happen in this environment” and referenced Trump’s ongoing attempts to freeze spending on all federal loans and grants, mass firings and attempts to downsize federal employees, threats of broad tariffs against numerous countries, and promises of mass deportation.

• When Lombardo was inaugurated as governor two years ago he inherited a flush budget, much of which was the result of ARPA’s passage in 2021.

• Lawmakers also noted the uncertainty being created by the upheaval in Washington could compromise not only the Nevada economy, but the flow of federal funds to Nevada.

• Approximately 800,000 Nevadans — 1 in 4 — are on Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

• More than 359,000 Nevadans are eligible through the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion, which Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval and the Democratic-controlled Legislature opted the state into in 2012.