July/August 2025
After the Gavel Falls: What Comes Next—and Who Pays For It?
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NOTHER NEVADA LEGISLATIVE SESSION HAS come and gone. More than 1,200 bills were introduced. Dozens passed. A handful made headlines. And now, with the 83rd Session in the rearview, the state enters a quieter phase—the inbetween season, where laws move from words to consequences. But let’s be clear: this is not the end of the story. It’s the start of a new chapter— one written not in statutes, but in receipts, hiring delays, and thinner margins. For retailers, the real impact of policymaking is always delayed. It’s felt not when a bill is signed, but when compliance begins. When regulations are written. When mandates come with no funding. When the cost of doing business ticks upward—one rule, one form, one fine at a time. And when that happens, it’s not just businesses who feel it. It’s customers. Every time a retailer is forced to restructure operations, absorb a compliance cost, or delay expansion, the effects cascade outward. Prices
By Mary Lau
Mary Lau
go up. Product selection shrinks. Service slows. And Nevada families—already stretched by inflation and housing pressure—feel the pinch. This session saw numerous bills that increased complexity for retailers without a clear path for consumer benefit. Proposals targeting labor, technology, and workplace conditions often came with little analysis of operational burden. Others aimed to respond to national trends, but failed to account for Nevada’s unique economic landscape. Some bills RAN supported. Many we opposed. A few we successfully helped stop. But the lesson of the session is bigger than any single
vote: well-meaning legislation can still have damaging, unintended effects—especially when cost is an afterthought. But the work doesn’t stop with adjournment. Now begins the painstaking, often invisible phase of making sense of what passed—interpreting statutes, anticipating regulatory rules, and preparing members for what’s next. And just as important, now is the time to elevate a message that too often goes unheard in the legislative process: When government adds cost, the public absorbs it. That’s not ideology—it’s math. And unless that reality is centered in every fiscal note, Continued on page 2
INSIDE Bryan Wachter Named President of RAN.......................................2 The Demise of AB500 and Nevada’s Reluctance to Lead......................................3 PBM Reform Delayed by Process, Not Politics.................4 Industry News..........................5 Nevada’s 2026 Election Cycle Begins to Take Shape...............8