Proposed Budget - Fiscal Years 2026-2027
On January 15, Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo released a budget proposal for the fiscal 2026-2027 biennium, which was later revised. The recommended budget calls for $28.1 billion in total spending in fiscal 2026, a 4.4 percent decrease from fiscal 2025, and $28.2 billion in fiscal 2027, a 0.6 percent increase over fiscal 2026. General fund appropriations are recommended at $6.4 billion in fiscal 2026, an increase of 3.4 percent over fiscal 2025, and $6.4 billion in fiscal 2027, an increase of 0.5 percent from fiscal 2026. The budget is based on forecasted general fund revenue (after tax credits) of $6.1 billion in fiscal 2026, an increase of 2.0 percent from fiscal 2025, and $6.3 billion in fiscal 2027, an increase of 2.7 percent over fiscal 2026. The budget proposal includes transfers to the rainy day fund of $258.9 million in fiscal 2026 and $49.2 million in fiscal 2027, and the rainy day fund balance is projected to be $1.66 billion at the end of the biennium.
Proposed Budget Highlights
The biennial budget continues to prioritize competitive compensation for all state employees, ensures teacher raises enacted last session are made permanent, and emphasizes key priorities including housing, health care, education, public safety, and economic development.
Housing
- Invest additional funds in the Division of Housing, leveraging funds to create an impact of more than $1 billion over the next four years. Programs will include developing attainable owner-occupied and rental housing projects, land acquisition for housing development, providing assistance to essential workers purchasing homes, and incentivizing local governments to increase housing supply.
Health Care
- Reorganize the Department of Health and Human Services, the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange, and the Public Employees’ Benefits Program by creating the Department of Human Services and the Nevada Health Authority.
- Dedicate additional funds to expand the health care workforce in the state.
- Allocate opioid settlement funds to support statewide projects for public and private entities to address the impact of opioid and other substance use disorders.
- Add funds to support projected caseload growth for Aging and Disability Services Division programs.
- Enhance community paramedicine in rural hospitals.
- Continue the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) program.
Education
- Increase funding through the K-12 funding formula.
- Expand funding for teacher raises to include public charter school educators.
- Fully fund transportation services for public charter schools.
- Allocate additional funds to public pre-kindergarten programs.
- Increase funding to continue the Incentivizing Pathways to Teaching program.
- Add new funds for State Special Education Funding.
- Invest new funds to phase in the new funding formula for Nevada System of Higher Education.
Economic Development
- Provide additional funds over the biennium into the Knowledge Fund to foster research and commercialization in areas targeted for economic growth.
- Create the Nevada Childcare Facility Tax Credit.
- Allocate funds to the State Infrastructure Bank to support low- or no-interest loans for housing and economic development projects.
- Additional funds to address targeted industries’ workforce needs with educational partners through the Workforce Innovations for a New Nevada (WINN) program.
Community and Infrastructure
- Reserve funds for the Southern Nevada Forensic Facility and North Las Vegas State Veterans Home.
- Allocate funds for the purchase, modernization and improvements of state office buildings.
Public Safety
- Allocate additional funds to hold habitual criminal offenders accountable.
- Additional funds for the Department of Corrections driven by higher costs of medical services and food, along with a projected increase in the offender population.
- Provide new funds to add new positions and establish two Correctional Emergency Response Team shifts at a correctional center.
- Allocate additional funds to support new positions at the Department of Public Safety, including the Investigation Division and Division of Parole and Probation.
Other Priorities
- Transfer food inspection activities from the Department of Health and Human Services to the Division of Animal Industry.
- Additional funding to the Gaming Control Board to support investigations and enforcement.
- Transfer the Division of Emergency Management to the Office of the Governor.