Gov. Sisolak targeted in $2 Million Ad Blitz

Get Families Back to Work released a new TV and radio ad hammering Governor Steve Sisolak for shutting small businesses down and supporting higher taxes on hardworking Nevadans. The entity’s officers are affiliated with the Republican Governor’s Association and have invested a reported $2 million dollars to tip the scales in a “Toss-Up” race between Governor Sisolak and Sheriff Joe Lombardo.

The ad, in part, claims that inflation is “hammering Nevada families” and “under Steve Sisolak, Nevadans have the nation’s second highest unemployment rate.” According to published, bipartisan reports, these claims are factually true.

The Globe has reported that inflation is hitting Nevadan households the hardest. In a report released by the United States Congressional Joint Economic Committee, prices increased 12.7 percent from January 2021 to April 2022 in Nevada, costing the average Nevada household $686 last month alone.Even if prices stop increasing altogether, the inflation that has already occurred will cost the average Nevada household $8,231 over the next 12 months.

In the wake of Sisolak’s shutdowns during the pandemic, the unemployment rate remains the second highest in the country and small businesses were forced into bankruptcy.

According to the Pahrump Valley Times:

Some 270,000 small businesses were operating in Nevada in 2019, with small businesses employing roughly 40 percent of the state’s workforce, a federal report said. During the pandemic, more than 35 percent of those businesses shuttered their doors for good, according to Lt. Gov. Lisa Cano Burkhead.

Although the governor has publicly claimed that he had never raised taxes during his four year term, he fails to mention that in 2019 he signed Democratic legislation that extended the business tax and a DMV surcharge. However, the legislation was met with a lawsuit led by State Senator James Settlemeyer which claimed that the legislation did not meet the state’s constitutional requirement of a 2/3 majority to raise taxes. The Nevada Supreme Court agreed.

As reported by the Las Vegas Review Journal:

At the end of the 2019 session, Democrats pushed through extensions of an existing business tax and DMV license surcharge, generating an expected $105 million in revenue. Democrats had sought the revenue measures to increase funding for education, a legislative priority.

Under a 1994 voter-backed change to the state constitution, bills that raise taxes require supermajorities in both houses to pass, but Democrats argued that the tax bills merely extended existing taxes and therefore were exempt from the requirement.

The court disagreed, upholding a District Court ruling from September.

In a publicly released statement, RGA spokeswoman Maddie Anderson said, “What do shuttering small businesses, supporting job-killing taxes, and wanting to raise fuel taxes have in common? All are part of Governor Sisolak’s re-election campaign platform. With the second highest unemployment rate in the country, Nevadans are desperate for a leader who will stand up to Joe Biden’s disastrous economic policies — not a blindly loyal foot soldier to one of the least popular presidents in history.”