Even Spotleson’s Fellow Democrats Admit the Math Doesn't Add Up
A legislative working committee spent seven months trying to find a way to pay for regional rail in Nevada.
They came back with nothing.
No funding plan. No revenue source. Just a promise to study it more in 2027.
The Regional Rail Transit Working Committee, created under Assembly Bill 256, wrapped up its research in June.
This week, the interim Committee on Growth and Infrastructure voted to approve a slate of recommendations.
None of them include a way to pay for rail.
Assemblyman Max Carter chaired the working committee. He's a Democrat. And even he admitted the real problem.
“I will say that in my two terms now, it's become abundantly clear that Nevada has a revenue problem,” Carter said. “Every single issue out there that needs to be done in our state hits the same block wall of revenue streams.”
Here's what that block wall actually means.
There is no way to fund a rail system in Nevada without raising taxes.
Financial advisor Guy Hobbs laid out the options for the working committee.
Wealth taxes. Payroll taxes. Corporate income taxes. Congestion pricing. Real property transfer taxes.
Nevada already leans on sales tax for local transit, and Hobbs said that revenue barely deserves “half a star” for stability.
So the committee is left staring at a list of new taxes because the existing system can't cover it.
That's not speculation. That's what the state's own financial advisor told them directly.
Where I Stand, and Where My Opponent Won't
I've signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. That means no tax increases. Full stop.
My opponent, Vinny Spotleson, hasn't signed it.
That shouldn't surprise anyone. Spotleson is a dues-paying member of the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America), an organization that has never met a tax increase it didn't like.
When Carson City comes looking for a way to fund big infrastructure promises, the Tax Pledge is the only thing standing between your paycheck and a new line item.
Nevada families in Assembly District 41 are already stretched thin. Higher payroll taxes, wealth taxes, or property transfer taxes won't fall on Carson City lobbyists.
They'll fall on the people who can least afford it… you.
I'm not interested in chasing a light rail project that a legislative committee can't even figure out how to pay for without raising your taxes.
Voters deserve a representative who won't quietly go along with new taxes just because a study committee ran out of other ideas – and who isn't a dues-paying member of an organization built around expanding government and taxation.
I've made my position clear: I will oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase your taxes. No exceptions.
Vote your pocketbook, not my opponent’s fever dream.
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