Lt. Gov. Anthony highlights small biz at Carson meeting

Carson City Chamber of Commerce members got to know Nevada’s lieutenant governor a little better at a luncheon hosted at Gold Dust West on Thursday.

Stavros Anthony, a retired law enforcement officer and three-term Las Vegas councilman, explained his various roles in the state and made the case for a strong Nevada economy conducive to small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs.

“The economy is doing well in Northern Nevada,” Anthony said. “We’re attracting a lot of companies to Northern Nevada. A lot of companies on I-80, I-80 in California, they’re just using to leave California to come to Northern Nevada.”

A Republican, Anthony won the lieutenant governor seat in 2022. He said his primary responsibility is to fill in when the governor is out of state. He is also president of the Nevada Senate and drew some laughs describing the last legislative session.

“When it comes to the floor sessions of the Senate, when the Senate gets together in the Senate chambers in the legislative branch, I am actually the one who runs the meeting,” he said. “I make sure they’re not throwing stuff at each other. They’re not calling each other names. I make sure we have decorum. I make sure we get things done correctly … And then when it comes to voting, I only vote if there’s a tie, and obviously when it’s 13 to 8 (Democrats versus Republicans), it doesn’t even come close to a tie.”

Anthony did warn against a Democrat supermajority (as in the Assembly) and one political party not being responsive to another, though he added Republicans would probably do the same if their situations were reversed. He also mentioned Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoing “something like 75 bills, which was twice as many as any other governor in the history of Nevada.”

Lawmakers did find common ground in the last session on an area important to Anthony, he revealed. As lieutenant governor, he also chairs the Nevada Commission on Tourism, the Advisory Board on Outdoor Recreation, is vice chair the Board of Transportation and is a board member of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development. He said his bill draft request from last session, Senate Bill 24, was unanimously passed by both legislative houses and signed into law by the governor.

The bill created the Office of Small Business Advocacy within the Lieutenant Governor’s Office.

“It’s saving a lot of time, and it’s helping businesses open up, so people can live the American entrepreneurial dream, open up their own business, hire more people,” he said.

Anthony said the office helps small business owners navigate regulations as well as reviews regulations for possible reduction or elimination. One example he gave was trying to make it easier for ranchers and farmers to offer tourist events like farm-to-table dinners.

“One of my bill draft requests for the next legislative session is to put together a law that eliminates barriers to farmers and ranchers that want to have agriculture tourism on their farm or ranch,” he said. “We’re going to make it a lot easier to do that. I’m pretty confident it’s going to pass, and a lot of these farmers and ranchers can make a little extra money if they want to by incorporating some kind of tourism or some kind of community event into their farms.”

With his other bill draft requests in the 2025 session (he gets three), Anthony said he would like to make the Office of Small Business Advocacy permanent and pass a law requiring outdoor recreation in the public school system.

“I want to make it mandatory to do that and have educational opportunities in our schools that teach people about outdoor recreation activities all over the state of Nevada instead of looking at their phone all day,” he said.

Applause erupted at that last line. While discussing the intersection of tourism, transportation, outdoor recreation and economic development, Anthony touched upon challenges on the horizon during a question-and-answer session.

“The problem we have — and it’s really our problem, it’s the state’s problem and counties,’ Sparks, Reno, Washoe County primarily — is keeping up with the infrastructure,” he said. “That’s really the part that we’re really having a hard time with. I-80 is at capacity. We’re running out of places for people to live. We need to get people around I-80, create more roads to get to TRIC and some other places in Northern Nevada.

“We need more workforce development, so we’re talking to our community colleges about what these businesses want for an employee so we can insert that program into community colleges. People can go there, learn that trade and get hired by that company… We’re not having a hard time attracting people to Northern Nevada. People love it up here. It’s a great place to live; it’s a great place to open up a business. It’s just our job making sure we keep up with the infrastructure.”

For information on the Nevada Office of Small Business Advocacy, go to ltgov.nv.gov/OSBA/Home.