Governor Steve Sisolak of Nevada has discarded plans of a draft law to make innovation zones, company-run governments with power similar to counties, for a study on this matter. In a recent statement, Sisolak said that the proposal has to go through further vetting. He said that it deserves more attention and conversation, and not due to the pressure of having fewer than 40 days remaining in the present legislative session.
Sisolak said that he wishes the questions of lawmakers, stakeholders and Nevada’s inhabitants to be debated and answered. He wants the public to not be skeptical regarding a quickly-approved bill but be enthusiastic regarding the opportunity instead.
The governor now proposes a plan on forming an interim legislative committee to look into innovation zones. There would be at least three members in the committee from the Assembly and Senate. It would meet once per month at the least as well as produce findings to Nevada by the year complete. One of the committee’s recommendations could be no further legislative action, or action before or during the legislative session of 2023.
The original bill would have permitted businesses with contiguous land spread across over 20,000 hectares, plus a pledge to put $1.25 billion into that zone, to make a government independent of the surrounding US county.
That bill was associated with a crypto company named Blockchains LLC, with around 27,000 hectares of rural land in Storey County.
This March, the members of Storey County Commission passed a legal resolution against giving up local authority over parts of the US county.
Leaders of both legislative chambers made statements in the state governor’s announcement, highlighting the requirement for further assessment of that idea.
Assemblyman Jason Frierson said that the state assembly understands that there exist outstanding questions worthy of debate and vetting. Frierson also said that the path forward would allow the assembly to stay open to the economic diversification process while discovering the whole impact to Nevada.
On the other hand, Assemblywoman Robin Titus said that she was happy about the fact that the governor scrapped the bill. The input of stakeholders should have happened as the first step, but it did not, said Titus.
