GangboX Podcast

GangboX Podcast Episode 10 w/ Governor Joe Lombardo

• Vince • Season 1 • Episode 10

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Come take a listen to our interview with THE GOVERNOR or the state of Nevada Joe Lombardo.  We only get the best guests here on the GangboX!  Take a listen and decide for yourself if he's the best candidate for Nevada going forward into 2026.  All things Union all things Construction!

SPEAKER_02

Welcome to the Gangbox Podcast. We got some heavy hitter guests back to back, huh? Yeah. Episode 10. Episode 10. Bringing the big guns now. The big guns. We have the worldwide, worldwide. Worldwide. Number one podcast in America. Prestige. The greatest podcast. The greatest biggest ever. We have the governor of the greatest state in the union, Mr. Joe Lombardo. How are you feeling, Joe? Can I call you Joe?

SPEAKER_00

Great. Yeah, you have a great podcast voice. Do I? Yeah. Oh. He has a face for radio. I like that. He's doing good. I like that. So you guys giving Joe Rogan a run for his money? I think so.

SPEAKER_02

In my mind, we are. Probably. My mom loves the podcast, so. Does she? Yeah. What about your brother-in-law? Uh, not so much. He says you cuss too much. I do cuss a fucking long time. Feel free to curse on here if you want to. Yeah. You don't have to. You kind of do. No. I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_03

No.

SPEAKER_02

So how are you feeling coming off the special session? Uh obviously that's a uh high stress, high anxiety, uh crazy time.

SPEAKER_00

Um Yeah, it's uh actually I feel pretty good about it. I mean, as far as success, we are if you were to put a percentage on it, probably 80% successful in what we were trying to purposely achieve through the session. You know, we bring a proclamation forward that's designed by my office. Um basically, you know, difference between a regular session and a special session was the governor designs the agenda, right? And it's and but with that being said, once the proclamation is presented, the legislature themselves is they can modify, they can bring different um bills together that are in proximity or you know, the interpretation of the proclamation and the and the actual words in there, uh, whether they can restrict or increase or modify anything within that agenda as long as it is approved legally, legalese, and it's constitutionally available, um it could look completely different at the end than when was the original presentation. So, and and you know, there's there's some of the things we could probably talk about here that changed as a result, and one um one of the big things uh was this last minute uh movement by the legislature themselves to get a two-thirds supermajority to bring forward their own bill. Right. So that's the first time in history that's done in the state of Nevada. Oh shit. So and that and that was to address the corporate ownership of housing. Yeah. And the limitation within that space and and the viability of uh putting that in law um into future uh projects uh that we're dealing in the housing space.

SPEAKER_02

So yeah, that was crazy. I know uh I I was asking Vince about that because that bill originally came up uh during the regular session uh and I remember seeing Ira Hansen. Hansen or Hansen? Hansen. Ira Hansen debating on the floor, and he was his it was interesting because his comments sounded like he was all for the bill. He's like, this is good, corporations shouldn't be buying up all our houses. I think he said, How can we compete with the likes of Elon Musk's and our our you know, Nevadans need to buy their own houses? But then he goes, the executive branch has asked me to vote with the party, so I'm a no. And I was like, that is crazy.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that was a that's a bold statement. Yeah. And it's unfortunate he made that kind of statement, but um because that was not the case. The case was is we were educating them on the issues associated with the bill. Uh there's a particular piece of federal legislation, it's called the dormant commerce clause, is where you can't restrict economy or commerce uh from individuals or corporations from one state to the other state. And that's basically what it would uh would be in violation of. And so the conversation was to, hey, you probably shouldn't be supporting this bill because it's gonna be vetoed because they they're not willing to cooperate on the changing of the particular languages uh that we believe through my office were unconstitutional. Yeah. And and yeah, he was well intended. He he wanted to support something that helped Nevadans, and there's a perception that the the corporations are coming in and buying thousands upon thousands of affordable housings and then out pricing those houses uh into the unaffordable market, right? And Nevadans should have first bite of the apple per se. And that's what we were trying to achieve first bite of the apple in that legislation, but we couldn't get there uh during the time of the regular session. And you know, obviously I ended up uh vetoing the bill because I thought it was in violation of one law in the constitution. And we needed, we had an agreement, I perceived an agreement to work out the nuances of that in future legislation, legislatures. And because it is, it's an issue for the state of Nevada, you know, being one of the highest medium home prices in the nation. Um we're pricing out our our workforce, our labor force, and the ability to have that proverbial dream of owning your own home and seeing a quality of life for you and your family, right? So there has to be some answers to that paradigm. Um, but the other issue on that is uh we did a significant amount of legislation addressing affordable housing outside of that subject matter. And that was incentivizing, you know, down payment, incentivizing rent payments, uh, allowing governments to provide uh assistance uh for first-time home buyers. Um we were changing the um the AMI, the uh qualifiers for government assistance in in purchasing a home in the down payment space by raising it from 120 to 150. That would be inclusive of a whole different um group of individuals, in particular our first responders and worse workforce and people of the trades, right? Um, to get them assistance in that space so they can uh achieve that vision. And that passed. So to the tune of it was funded, it was a requested funding of 250 million, and it was negotiated to 183 million. Now those incentives are taking place here in the next couple of weeks. There's that money is starting to hit the street here in the next couple of weeks. So there's a lot of movement in the affordable housing space that we can address here in short order and evaluate going forward in you know the next 12 months and see whether it's working or not. Yeah. And then, but when you try to throw another factor on top of it, this corporate purchasing and and the and facing lawsuits that go along with it and everything, it is just muddy in the water. I think that's the best way I could describe it, muddy in the water, and it needed to be fully baked before we made a decision to go that direction. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And that's not to cut you off, I apologize, but that's one of the things I think we we kind of you came into office and I took over as the building trades uh guy, uh damn near at the same time. And I remember meeting with you once, and i it was like at the very beginning of session in 23, and it was kind of like damn, and then we met again second part of the the second half of the session. And I remember we both kind of were like, What the fuck is this process really doing, man? It was a shock to both of us that how much perception versus like reality things happen because things get framed out in Carson City to be one thing, and it's like there's this bill to cure cancer, but then there's also like a hundred other things in there that like fucking will just ruin everything. And then that's it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, the poison pill. And and that's one of the uh unfortunate pieces of you know, every every constitution and every state is different. The nuances and the ability and authority of the executive branch and the legislative branch, and and you know, like if you let's use Virginia as an example, Glenn uh Yuncan, he has he has executive order just like every other governor in the union, but his has the power of an executive order. Mine is only has power when it's in times of emergency. So COVID is an example, right? Where you have to change policy, change law as a result of an emergency. Outside of that, it only has an authority internal to government process. So my department, department of transportation, whatever it may be, I can put an executive order that says you can't work from home, right? You have to come in the office to work. And um, but his is all-encompassing. It's just like a piece of legislation passed by the legislature. He goes, Man, no, you you this is the law that I want to pass as your governor. And the other piece on that is when you talk about poison pills, you know, quite often we talk, um, it's presented that I I've broken the record in vetoes, yeah. You know, in the in the two sessions. That that's not a record that I'm proud of, right? And and I've said it publicly, I think it's bad government, right? It was more of a test of my resolve versus good policy. And so use Glenn Young in Virginia again. He has a line item veto power as a governor. I do not have that in the state of Nevada. And what that means is 90% of your bill is fantastic. You got a one poison pill over here in the 10%. I can't veto that.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

They said, well, let's just veto that and we'll pass the rest of the bill. You don't have that in the state of Nevada. But what state do you say has that? Virginia. Virginia. Oh, really? Yeah. I mean, and it's different in every set. So uh, but uh, and there hasn't been an appetite by the legislature to change that authority. You know, it's it's a power struggle, right? The legislature wants to have the ultimate authority when it comes to um making laws, and executive branch wants the authority to be able to modify it.

SPEAKER_03

That's interesting. I never I didn't know that. Did you know that now?

SPEAKER_00

Um Well, that's the reason why you have a podcast, right? That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Information.

SPEAKER_02

It's for us to learn.

SPEAKER_03

And so where we're talking about Virginia and the East Coast, and uh we got Donald Trump in the White House. Yeah. And, you know, his uh his folks, you know, with trying to take out these renewable energy jobs and stuff, which has really affected Nevada. I mean, we look, we we have we're we're blessed here with our minerals and our sun and and and natural resources that are given given to us here. What are you doing anything or what's your thoughts on on the renewable energy projects getting shut down here?

SPEAKER_00

That's a great question. Great question. I appreciate you asking it. Um and yeah, we're we're doing something, and we've actually had some movement in that space in the last two weeks. So he comes out with an executive order. Trump says um renewable energy will not be subsidized by the federal government any longer, in particular to solar and wind, right? Uh we don't utilize wind uh energy here in the state of Nevada because uh I this is an education I didn't know about. Um, but um you have to have a sustained, not too much and not too little of wind of 20 miles, approximately 20 miles per hour over a sustained period of time. We don't have that anywhere, you know, similar to like the ocean breezes, right? So we've never explored wind here because it wouldn't be a return on investment on the cost. And and part of his executive order was the cost of production, the cost of maintenance, the cost of manufacturing, the cost of everything else that goes along with receiving the power and distributing the power. Um, there was no return on investment in wind. So that was part of his executive order. Okay. The second part was solar. He um we were encumbered by the majority of all the equipment, the panels, um, the transformers and everything else uh that goes along with solar, um, the equipment that's required was manufactured in China, the majority of it. And they had the ability to manipulate the electronics, the technology in it, so they can receive you know different amounts, different types of information that would be um cumbersome to homeland security or whatever it may be. He says, and the amount of solar energy provided in totality was strictly inefficient as compared to the threat of homeland security, right? So um that's not the case in Nevada. So Nevada utilizes solar energy more than any other state in the union. One is because we have a lot of sun, right? We have a lot of open space, a lot of unusable open space, and we use it as a form of energy. We don't have any hydrology, we don't have rivers and stuff that we could, you know, harness the power of energy and all the other forms, but we do have geothermal, which we are the number one state in the union in geothermal, right? And all our power plants are run off natural gas. That that's a fallacy. I mean, you guys probably experienced this when we were talking about you know the retrofitting of gas lines and everything else, and you know, the pulling back of the utilization of natural gas. But people don't realize, well, that's how they make power through natural gas. That's the most efficient way to make power. Um, and that's what in the state of Nevada, we only have one coal fire plant left that's producing power, and that is uh due to be decommissioned in a certain period of time. And this is all going into your carbon issue and environmental, uh, what you have put in place in your constitution on on timelines associated with build out of green energy, you know, what's the conversion, the solar versus traditional, all the nuances that were put in there. And it becomes very cumbersome to have that executive order out of the Trump administration in the state of Nevada. Yeah. So we uh in our in our timeline that we put into the Constitution um in the conversion of green energy, the expansion of green energy. Um we by I I I don't know, I'm sure one of your members will research it, but I don't know the exact date, 2030 to 2035. We had to have 35% uh solar power, yeah, right? Well, we're we're in the 20% currently, right? And we have to rely on the expansion of solar. One is for our power needs, and two is to meet the the guidelines associated with green energy within the state of S. So I went back to um C Trump for a numerous items, but this one in particular I I met with them on because I had previously met with Doug Bergram, who is the Secretary of Interior, about this issue and didn't get an answer. Okay. And I explained to him why we have to have a different mindset in the state of Nevada. And subsequently I had an audience with Donald Trump and uh I say you have to buy any of his meme coins to get that audience. No. Okay. Yeah, I'll tell you a little funny story about that. But the uh um you uh and so I'm sitting there with talking, we're talking about you know, re-elect, we're talking about uh um Nevada, we're talking about people he knows in Nevada, and and you know, he's asking how they're doing, and then I said, Well, I got a couple items I need to address, reference Nevada, and one in particular was uh your executive order in the prohibition of solar energy. And so I walked him through it. And I said, You've been to Nevada, you got a hotel in Nevada, right? And we have a lot of brown fields, in other words, fields that aren't going to be developed. Um one is proximity to underground and utilities, and the other one is it just doesn't make uh economic sense to develop, and it may or may not be encumbered by the BLM. And the issue he had brought forward was the Chinese threat, and two was um there was an agricultural threat, taking up agricultural land in other states and grazing land in other states, um, besides the Chinese issue. And so I walked him through it and he goes, Okay, sounds good. I'm glad you brought it up. I'll call Bergram, tell him uh it's allowable in Nevada. That's as simple as it was. Uh has it happened yet? Well, it was two weeks ago. So and I actually have a meeting next week uh with uh Bergram reference to Colorado River water um uh to go through the the federal um not interference but injecting injection into that that those negotiations and uh confirm through with him at that time where we're at with the solar fields. No, that's because there there's four fields currently that are in process of being built. So the original ask was to let those at least continue and be finished and then actually pull back on the executive order for the state of Nevada. So we're working at it from two directions. Nice.

SPEAKER_03

I appreciate it, and I'm sure the brothers appreciate it. Um it's because again, and I know Daniel, if I don't know if you got any questions you want to ask right now, but I I I will say thank you for for that because you know you and I have had plenty of conversations, and and it's not for me, it's not just about the Democratic Party or the Republican Party, it's about jobs. It's about work. I care about infrastructure, growth, economic development in the state, um, specifically southern Nevada. And and so to hear that you're in in in your own way, the way I view it is fighting for jobs, Daniel will probably call me a kiss ass or something. Sure. It's really fucking weighing on thick now. But I appreciate that because you've even signed legislation like you said, uh with the gas replacement pipes and stuff, and and uh Daniel didn't know this, but the the way that I run legislation for the building trades is I go sit down and I meet with you first, and our members don't even know how the fuck the process works, and it's it it's okay. But I always meet with you first because the end goal is Well they don't need to know.

SPEAKER_00

No. I mean you that's why they voted you in, right?

SPEAKER_03

So that they can the people that want to do the research and you get those guys who say no, this is the way it is. But I I I always saw some on social media.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Uh I like to meet with you first to make sure that it's uh something before I go in there and get my curb stomped and head kicked in and all the bad things that happen to me in the legislature, I want to make sure that it's gonna get signed before I run through the gauntlet. And then I try to meet with the governor throughout the session to make to give them updates on where we are and things, and not just for building trades legislation, but individual local unions legislation. But thank you because um whether it was intended or not, I I I hope you believe that I'm always gonna run legislation that isn't just pro-union, but is pro-Nevada and is good for the workforce and and economic development and growth of the state of Nevada. So thank you.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I I appreciate you saying that, Vince. Um, and I think it's important that that's an important piece of education, I believe, for your members, though, is you know, traditionally um uh there's a perception when it comes to labor and unions that that unions are strictly democratic, right? And the Republicans are anti-union, right? And I think the consensus in that that narrative is we are jobs driven, both D and R, jobs driven, jobs driven, and quality jobs, not just jobs, but quality jobs. And that's what the unions provide, quality jobs, right? So there's there's there's room for conversation on both sides of that, right? And I'm not shying away from it. Well, you and I had this conversation. And you know, an example being is you know, there was a there's argument when we we I'm sure we're gonna talk about the film bill, but when we when the when we were talking about that, you know, there there was a complaint on the Republican side. Well, these PLAs and it's just all union work and everything. No, that's not the case. Ira Hansen said that from the floor, and he lied multiple times. Well, okay. But the reality is to just go all the way back to Allegiant. Go back to the current, go to the current athletic stadium, right? And then the future bright line build out. There's only so many union jobs available, right? And right, wrong, or indifferent. People decide not to be in a union, they want to go at it from a different direction. That that's their prerogative, right? Um, but there's always space for those positions. There's there's non-union positions on you know, on the A's project or or the Legion project, whatever it may be, because it's just a it's a supply and demand, it's a number, it's a it's a math problem. So well, so we're we're not trying to prevent anybody from doing anything.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and and you know, obviously me and Vince are pretty close. He's my buddy, right? Uh and we talk politics a lot. And it's like he thinks I hate you, right? You know, because you know, historically you're right. Like I'm I I've been uh a union construction worker since I was 18 years old. Every single hour I've ever worked my entire adult life has been under a collective bargaining agreement. Right. My father was a union glazer. So collectively bargained wages put shoes on my feet when I was a kid, and collectively bargained wages put shoes on my kids' feet. And uh historically, it it definitely seems like the Republican Party has been against labor, right? I think it's changing.

SPEAKER_00

You know, I mean No, it's definitely changing because i i I didn't mean to cut you off, Daniel, but go back to the the the core of it, the the granular aspect of this. What are you trying to achieve? You know, the American dream. Right. Your quality of life, a good job that enables you to do that. And your vision, the union provided for you in that aspect. So the Republicans and The Democrats are looking for jobs. They're looking that's the economy. And what is the role of government in jobs? I don't make jobs, I don't create jobs other than the people that work it for the state of Nevada, but we create opportunity for jobs. Yes. Okay. And that's the key that people fail to sometimes understand. And the Republicans are creating opportunity and the Democrats are creating an opportunity, right? And so you can't you can't paint anybody in one particular box anymore.

SPEAKER_03

And so that's that's what I've learned, right? So and and what I've learned is when the government has the opportunity to help create the American dream and jobs, I don't try to write project labor agreements in legislation.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_03

I I was taught that by my predecessor. Um he didn't he he would he didn't take me by the hand and show me that. That's just what people tell told me, this is how you get it done. And I seen that that creates more problems. So what I do is when people look for the government to help bring jobs legislatively, I go meet with them and say, hey, I could help. Here's where you can we could help you get this done, right? You get me plus my lobbying corps plus all the representation of the unions to help you push this job. And we get a PLA. And if I can get the ink dry before we get into session, there's no need to write it into the legislation. And and it's a private company who's choosing to do this. Right. Um, and then you get statements by people like the old guard of the Republican Party, like Anyrah Hansen, who makes these outlandish statements. And just so you know, an educational piece here. The way that I craft project labor agreements is for the worker, not the contractor. And I don't for one, the state of Nevada, it's illegal for any worker to have to be a part of a union. We don't break the law with our PLA, so that's false. Two, you don't have to be a union signatory contractor to work on a project that has a project labor agreement. Creech Air Force Base, right now, is a prime example of that. The Water Authority, prime example of that. So there is Raider Stadium. Raider Stadium.

SPEAKER_02

There's no there is a non-union painting contractor on that job.

SPEAKER_03

We're not trying to keep the contractors to do anything. We just want to make sure that the workforce is local and dispatch out of a union. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I mean, I think that's the overall agreement, right? Yeah. That's what you want to do. You want the workforce to be local. Yeah. You want the workforce to be local. But sometimes they don't have the either the expertise or the technology. You know, like the crane services. Like I went out, um, so Richard Dielman is a good friend of mine, you know, Dilco Crane.

SPEAKER_03

Yep.

SPEAKER_00

Union House, right? And so I'm out at the athletics um project, and I'm looking at this massive crane up in the sky. And so I talked to the the GC out there, and I said, Hey, who's your crane provider? And it was so and so and so and so. And I go, how come it's not local? How come it's not? He goes, No, Dilco's over here, but they don't have the the technology. Dilco didn't have the technology for this one particular crane, right? And this and it only came out of you know, Missouri or whatever it may be. Um, so you have those nuances, but uh the majority of it should be emphasis on homegrown labor.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I mean, I agree a hundred percent. And uh, you know, like I think that's what bothered me so much, you know, uh about IRA uh in his statements, is because he was making statements like, oh, the PLA, you you have to be union. And he he said a line that uh who's the ABC guy that I can't stand either? Warren Hardy. Warren Hardy. He he said something that Warren Hardy says all the time, which is a lie. I represent 90% of the non-union workers who choose to be non-union, and they don't, you know, and and you just made a statement like there's only so many union jobs. Well, there's only so many union jobs because that's the work that we win, right? When we win more work, those 90% that are choosing will choose to jump over immediately. The problem is they want to be union, but we have to create the market for them. We have to create the demand. And it's hard for our contractors to win jobs when these other contractors are undercutting our contractors by by by you know off the backs of the workers, right? And so it puts us in this circle where, well, look, 90% of the guys are non-union. Well, they don't want to be union and we want them, but we we can't get the work with our contractors because these low-road contractors who cheat and steal all the time, I catch them all the time, uh, are winning the jobs and then taking it out on the workforce. And so, you know, I know he says we don't write PLAs into legislation. Like, I I want everything to be a PLA, everything should be a PLA because it's guaranteeing uh that the workforce can make the money that they need to buy a house. You know, we we talk about home home affordability.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I mean, but that's two different issues, right? You got prevailing wage and you have PLAs, correct? So and I I'm an advocate for uh prevailing wage. Yeah. I mean, to the to the T. I think it should be across the board, you know.

SPEAKER_02

No restrictions. No Well, I mean, you had your housing bill, right? I know there was some language or some discussion or an amendment that there was time where there was discussion on taking the prevailing wage out of that. And I know that made a lot of union people upset because you know that that prevailing wage, when when government dollars are creating jobs, I think they should be creating good paying jobs.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, but there's there's a nuance to that. You're right. Yeah, there's a nuance to it. One is your infield versus your outfield. So traditionally, um uh correct me if I'm wrong, the trades don't get into residential building. That's unfortunately correct. He tried to get it out. That's correct. That's correct. And so if we were to force um a PLA or it a unionization into the residential settings, that remember the key word, affordable housing. Right. Does that drive up the cost per door to where it's no longer affordable housing? Can we prevent that by not having the PLA associated with that piece, knowing that you don't traditionally participate in that particular function? That's what we were trying to achieve. Yeah. You know, the curb and gutter and the roadway and the fencing and the pruners and underground and all that. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02

So the workforce, and unfortunately, though and I hear you, and I understand that that, right? Uh, but the workforce that that builds homes is the most taken advantage workers in the state. They are treated horribly. Uh and then you know, we try to go, you know, I know. Well, a lot of times they're transitional workers, correct? Is that correct? Uh like like temporary, you mean that hasn't been my initial.

SPEAKER_00

There's a lot of folks coming from out of state. Yeah, but the like the people because those projects come and go.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, they come and go. Um I mean, we're my local, my unions are really focusing on that market. Um, and we're trying to think outside the box and develop agreements to s to try to capture that market, and we are gonna jump in. Uh I said I just had a meeting today about it. We are gonna jump in and try to get that because those are the workers that need us the most. You know what?

SPEAKER_00

The more the merrier. The reason being is because um we don't have enough. We don't have enough in that space. And that's why when we were talking about reciprocal uh licensing uh from out of state contractors in the rural environment, not in the you know, Washo and and Carson and Douglas and and Clark, uh is because the contractors won't go there. Yeah, we can't get it built because they won't go there because they don't have a place to live, you know, affordable housing for the workforce, and a lot of those aspects and the proximity and the distance uh from their main residence. Right. And it's so there's so there's nuances in that, and that's why it has to be open for discussion. It can't be a uh either or or, right? An absolute yes or no. And that's where I think it's changed over the years with the Republican Democratic process. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Well, and I know when you announced your uh your campaign, um, I mean you had labor standing behind you, the laborers, yeah, actually. 872. Yeah, 872. Tommy White. They were behind you in in full force. And you know, we had Tommy on the podcast and we talked to him a little bit about that. And uh so what I guess my question would be what makes you a better candidate, the best candidate for for labor, like for for particularly construction labor. Construction labor, right? Our guys, like what what makes you the best candidate over over say uh uh Aaron Ford?

SPEAKER_00

Well, because of history, one of support. Uh two, um, you can't label me as a Republican and non-partner. Right. Okay. And three is uh communication, man. Uh there ain't a time that Vince has text me, Tommy's text me, whoever it may be, Frank has text me, that I don't return their call.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

All right, and have a conversation about it. Hey, we have a problem with this. Okay, well, let's talk about it.

SPEAKER_03

That's a matter of fact, yeah, seriously. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So that's why. Okay, good. So I'm not doing I'm not doing anything to limit uh labor. Yeah. Okay. I'm not doing anything. Okay. And and and one of the one of the things I got uh shot across the bow when I did decide to run for the first time was in expanding. My I firmly believe you have to expand the economy in order for a community to continue to grow. If you don't, um it'll eventually dry up and die. Right. And so you have people on the other side, the you know, the the you know, on the extremes, the left, or say the conservationists and things like that, they'll say, no, we don't need any more building. We just want to be happy with what we currently have, and that's why we leave it. Well, you know, it's it's gonna be a ghost town before you know it, right? Because the unfortunately in the state of Nevada, 62% of our total economy is based off the gaming space. And what is occurring across the United States, the proliferation of gaming, yeah, right? So if we don't expand on the economy, which means jobs, yeah, yeah, okay, we're gonna be cool. We're gonna dry up and blow away. Dry up and blow away. And that's that's the basic concept of it. And to have you have to have a candidate that has that vision um for it to be success into the future. And I believe I have that vision.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and I mean obviously you were uh you endorsed the movie studios, right? You put it on the proclamation. That that was an endorsement enough that you wanted that to go. Uh what do you think when you know it's weird we talk about it because it it seemed so odd to see these far left progressives and these far right Republicans teaming together to kick the shit out of the people in the middle who are trying to make a deal, right? Because that's what it essentially was, and that's always been my argument. You know, I made that argument under the A Stadium when I testified in support of that bill. I said, look, we have these far left progressive groups that have never cut a deal with a billionaire in their lives, and now all of a sudden they care about billionaires. We're the union guys. Yeah, I don't want the billionaires to have everything either. We actually fight them. We're the ones in the trenches, we are at the bargaining table, we are in the courts, we are at arbitration, we are the ones fighting against them, but we know when to cut a deal. We cut the best deals there are. Look at our benefits, look at our our wages compared to the the non-union sector. Like we cut those deals because we know we have to. And so now we have these people in the middle at the legislature and we got the shit kicked out of us by the extremes who teamed up together. You know, you have Chuck Mouth with you know, with uh what's her fate? Who is it? LaRue Hatch on the same team, and I'm like fucking wild. We live in a crazy world when the the moderates that are trying to get things done and pushed forward are losing to the extremes.

SPEAKER_03

I think I seen LaRue Hatch with the Chuck Mooth's truth t-shirt. I think I seen that. I could be wrong.

SPEAKER_02

I bet. I bet. It's just crazy. What do you think went went wrong? Do you think there's any lessons we learned or anything we could have done differently to try to get that across the across the the finish line?

SPEAKER_00

Well, yeah, there were there were some lessons. Um I just want to couch this the right way. So yeah, I I I wasn't aware of that that partnership until late in the process, and then I became aware of what they were trying to achieve. But I think that what it was is they were they were together on the lack of desire to have the studios. Okay. And but I think the re the reasons why were completely different. Okay. I think I think that was the case. You know, if you look at the Republican side, the majority of that was transferable tax credits, right? Um they they don't like that scheme. They think it, they think it's uh a giveaway to the b uh billionaires, millionaires, billionaires nowadays, but uh uh they don't like that scheme. And on the other side, on the left, uh the extreme was well, can couldn't we better serve uh producing tax credits in a um for a different functionality? And and and and LaRue Hatch and her team, the NSCA, the Nevada State Education Association, they they they were against the stadium, everything else, because they they think all that money should be injected into education. Right. Okay. And for the economy to work and for you to move forward, there's gotta be a balance across the board. Right. You can't have all your eggs in one basket. We're learning that with the economy here in the state of Nevada. And so I I think they had different reasons for pairing up, uh, but they had a central uh belief that the studios were bad.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, for the future of Nevada. And the people in the middle had the opposite view, right? And what I have always I said on this, you know, that the argument with transferable tax credits, uh, you know, the biggest the biggest uh thing in education for Republicans is school choice. Right. Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, Victor Jokes was smashing you on Twitter about that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, he's uh you know, it's easy to opine from a keyboard, right? Right, and and it's uh and somebody that's never done anything in their life and everything else. You know, it yeah, I can't stand the guy. I I can I can give you 20 examples of why you shouldn't listen to Victor Jakes. Okay, but the I call him jokes. I always say, you know, the man in the ring, you know, the proverbial man in the ring speech. If you're gonna bitch and complain, why don't you get in the ring and do something about it, right? And throw some punches. Um, but you know, that's that's the lifestyle he tries to be. That's my governor. All right. So, but the um uh so back to oh, so the the transfer, so the they like school choice, right? That's cool. And so Nevada has this this program is called Opportunity Scholarships, and it's based off transferable tax credits, all right. So this is the most important thing for Victor Jakes, right? Opportunity scholarships, you need to leverage in this legislation, uh school choice, increase, you know, 50 million, 100 million in opportunity scholarships. Wait a minute, how is those scholarships funded? Oh, transferable tax credits. Oh, oh, oh, okay, but it's so it's okay over here, but not over here, right? And and so it's it's and this whole thing boiled down to the lack of understanding. Something from nothing is nothing, okay? Without building those studios, Howard Hughes doesn't developed the surrounding development, right? All right, the $1.4 billion of additional development. And so they're saying, well, we're losing the states being encumbered in the general fund on a 15-year basis uh by the lack of tax revenue um because of this the studios, right? That's encumbered. You can't you can't budget for any other programs to a tune of 120 million a year for 15 years, right? That's if they achieve all the the the uh production right value that they they were required to do. But outside of that, okay, so you're not gonna get the tax revenue here, but you're gonna get the tax revenue from the employees that are coming here and building house uh buying houses and and going to restaurants and blah, blah, blah. What all it goes, so you're gonna get that, right? Okay, but you're gonna get all the consolidated tax revenue, you know, your your your sales tax, your property tax, your capex um equipment tax, and and your modified business tax off the 1.4 billion dollars of uh Howard Hughes development that is not gonna get built without the studios. Okay. Right. But now you have nothing. Yeah, you're having nothing now. You have zero. You have a brown, empty field. Yep. And I just couldn't get people past that. Yeah, you know, and they they said that this would be the worst thing that ever happened to you, governor. You know, you you won't get re-elected if if you continue to push this because of the transferable tax credit. This is gonna go against your base. And I can't make decisions based off that. I have to make decisions what is better for the state of Nevada. Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_03

I always I always find that shit odd when when they start talking about your brand and your base, and it's like, so you mean to tell me that my base supporter system and supporters are gonna go with the other guy? If I if I do like get the fuck out of here. Like stop.

SPEAKER_00

Well, here's another piece. You're exactly right, Vince, but there's there's another piece to this, okay? If you noticed all the rural both on the on the Democratic side and the Republican side were against this, right? But what they failed us quite often understand, some of them do, but a majority of them don't, is the tide rises all ships, right? And how is right now in the current situation, no fault to anybody, there has been some proliferation of of the economy in so in northern Nevada via trick and the other um functionalities. But 62% of gaming supports the state budget. Right. It supports the totality of money that goes out into Oahu in Humboldt County and builds a school for them.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

That came from Clark County. Yeah, that didn't come from the tax base in preaching to the choir in Humboldt. That didn't come from the tax base in Humboldt, right? And you know, I'm a governor for the whole state, right? Right, but it's important for people to realize if it don't happen here, it ain't gonna happen here. Okay. We built a school out in White Pine, and that was provided by Clark County taxpayer money.

SPEAKER_02

So that brings me to my next question, and it's really important I get a direct answer, not a politician answer. You recently were at a football game, correct? Yeah, UNLV, UNR. Yeah. Who and I need an answer. Who were you rooting for to win that game? UNLV.

SPEAKER_00

Hey, there you go. There we go. I I told uh President Sandoval as much. I had red socks on. Okay. That's a direct answer.

SPEAKER_02

I was I thought you were gonna say I rooted for Nevada.

SPEAKER_00

No, I rooted for UNLV. I've I've made it uh I made it um very clear who I support in the college athletics department. Okay, good. You know, yeah, I I love I'm I'm the governor of Nevada. I support the entire system of higher education. Uh we were talking about sports. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So uh, you know, obviously uh the campaign's coming. One of the things that that you know your your whoever your opponent ends up being is going to talk about, um which I'd like you to address here is is the unemployment rate. Right. Um, you know, it's it's been high. Uh it it's we're we're we're always kind of at the top or near the top. Um what do you think is the reason that we've had such high unemployment um during your time as governor, and what do you think it would take to get it fixed?

SPEAKER_00

Well, let's not say just during my time as governor. We've been we've been up at the top, you know, 10 percentile for several decades. And here's the reason why. Okay, so here's here's a little dilemma in this. And this may blow your mind, it may not. Um, but uh so depending on the month, you know, but currently this month the numbers gonna come out. We've we've gone down almost a uh a total point, and so we're not we're gonna be a lot better situated uh this coming month than the previous months. So I'm looking forward to those numbers coming out. But um, so depending on the month, it's either us or Hawaii or California, all right, or at the highest unemployment numbers. I think the last month it was 5.7%. But we are also the highest number of available jobs in the nation.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Wrap your head around that. Like job openings, open available jobs. Open available jobs. Okay. Why is that? Wrap your head around that. Why is that? As a union. You guys are in the union.

SPEAKER_03

I want to see him answer this.

SPEAKER_00

This is an easy answer for you. For me. Yeah. I mean, I have they're not quality jobs.

SPEAKER_03

Yes, they're not quality jobs.

SPEAKER_00

They're not quality, they're not jobs where you can go buy a house.

SPEAKER_02

They're not jobs where you can, you know, they're jobs, they're jobs that aren't prevailing wager under a PLA, you're saying those jobs.

SPEAKER_00

Well, no, but I'm saying the unions are quality jobs, right? They provide a good wage. There's a lot of um, it's mostly in the service industry where people the the the dollar per hour is just not high enough for them to say, hey, you know, what's the return on investment for me having to pay for child care versus staying home? Right. Right, as compared to my dollar per hour. And that's where we're unfortunately um caught in a conundrum in the state of Nevada. And that's why I said when you know, day one when I decide to run for governor, we got to change our economic expansion. We got to change who we're trying to attract. We got to change um uh the paradigm of solely being relied on the casino industry, uh, the gaming industry, in order to be expansive in the state of Nevada. And so, what have I done? Of reference that's one is I've been very proactive in the go-ed space providing incentives. People say, Well, why do you always have to why do you got to provide incentives? We just need to put jobs here. Every state in the union is providing incentives, okay? And that's how they're recruiting big big companies. You know, we're not talking about your traditional small business environment. We're talking about, you know, your hundred-plus employer businesses, industries, industries that that provide um living wages, um, so people can fulfill that ultimate dream uh of a of a good life, right? And so that I we've been concentrating on that. And so as a result, um, since I've taken office, we have brought 150,000 jobs into the state of Nevada, um, 16,000 construction jobs uh since I've taken office, and our um job um numbers have increased 4% year over year. So um it's going forward, it's not all negative. Right. There's a perception of negativity because of the unemployment number. Right. But in reality, you have to look at it as a as a total concept and a total uh machine uh that is moving the state forward. And I am comfortable saying we are moving the state forward. We need higher paying jobs.

SPEAKER_03

We need yeah, dude. And that we you and I talk about that often, man. Like a skilled and trained, qualified workforce is what we're missing. And I I don't want to get on my fucking soapbox about what America.

SPEAKER_00

Well, we we talk about education, right? And and education is the key to all of that. Yes, from ground one, you know, from K kindergarten to to grade 12. And and we have a very poor record in the state of Nevada um of providing career ready or college-ready students upon graduation. And we are changing that um by the month. And if you saw the recent numbers that come out out of the Clark County School District, which has been traditionally a drag on the total education of the state of Nevada because of the size and and then the breadth of it and the teacher vacancies and everything that else goes along with it, we've because of what we did the last two sessions, and as far as curriculum changes, early education, infusion of monetary benefit to for wraparound services, all that stuff, the expansion of charter schools, school choice, um, we have changed I think it's 11 or 11 or 14 percent, don't quote me on that, of of one-star schools becoming um two and three-star schools. So we have less and less of the on the schools that aren't qualifying uh as success models. So uh that that's a big deal. That's a big deal, 14% in a matter of two years.

SPEAKER_03

So what we got about probably 10 minutes left, but I'll ask you what's your Jesus, we yeah, 48 minutes, dude. It's been it goes fast, it goes super quick, it's wild. What is your greatest accomplishment as governor, and then what what are you hoping to uh if if if you get re-elected, uh or however you want to frame it out, uh to accomplish in your next uh run at office?

SPEAKER_00

Well, there when I first decided to run for office, uh there was four key uh issues that it ran for in a proverbial platform. One was expansion of the economy, two was education, three was uh improvement upon health care and crime um law and order, right? And we took bites of that apple uh in the first legislative session, and I don't have to uh describe the the landscape for you, you know, but I was fighting against a majority, almost the precipice of a supermajority legislature pushing against my policies, whether they were good, bad, or indifferent, it was because I had an R next to my name. Okay. So we were we were biting, we took bites of that apple and we were successful uh to a very large percentage in that. And so when I went into the next session, was I gonna do anything different? No. I think those things were core, those four values were core of what we needed to accomplish for the state in its entirety um to continue to move forward, you know, at the level of the governor's office. Individual legislators could have their own projects, pet peeve, things like that. But in the second session, it was inclusive of affordable housing. So we're up to five pieces of the platform. And and so here we come now, today, we're you know, we're a year away from an election, and my decision is to run again. And why is my decision to run again is because we have a lot of unfinished businesses on those five platforms. And did your housing I think it's housing. I think it's it's it's a sound platform for the success of the state.

SPEAKER_03

I don't remember. Did you did you did you sign the housing bill? Uh-huh. Did you? Your your housing bill? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. With prevailing wage, though, right? Yeah. Yeah. See? We're good. We'll see how many get built. I'm a I'm a fan of prevailing wage, so don't try to frame that out that I'm Did I say you weren't a fan of prevailing wage?

SPEAKER_02

The governor said he's a f you're a fan of prevailing wage.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And are you a fan of PLAs? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Well it depends on the project, to tell you the truth. Rapid fire.

SPEAKER_02

Rapid fire. So I did this with uh the other so it was only three of them. So it was uh prevailing wage, you said good, PLA zoo, kind of uh uh right now.

SPEAKER_00

But I I haven't I haven't uh uh shied away from that. The PLA I've I've said it all along. I said it depends on the project, it depends on discussions with us, yeah. And and and going through it. I just didn't want a carte blanc, you know, Joe Biden type policy coming across the board.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. So he was the most pro-union president in the history of the country. Yeah. Uh right to work. Do I support it? Would you support eliminating it? No. You want to keep it?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, with states that don't have right to work, they have higher paying jobs. And the reason our unemployment is so high is we have all these jobs and they're not good paying jobs. So wouldn't the elimination of right to work allow us to then have better paying jobs, thus reducing our unemployment rate?

SPEAKER_00

Not necessarily. Not necessarily. I think there's a lot of moving parts in that discussion, and it wouldn't be it wouldn't be prudent to answer it completely in in the gangbox podcast. We got three minutes left. And I feel like you're cheating for rapid fire. Yeah, let's motherfucker. Let's let's cheat. Why don't you throw a subject out that requires eight hours of discussion? Fair enough. Fair enough. You're supposed to ask, like, what's your favorite color? No, no.

SPEAKER_02

Those are the three I asked another candidate. Same thing, but he just answered them yes, yes, yes. So two out of three impact. Yeah, two out of three impact.

SPEAKER_00

So he answered uh right to work, uh he would abolish it. He wants to get rid of it in his first session. He should he should bring that up publicly.

SPEAKER_02

Well, he said it on here. We're gonna we're gonna drop it. Um, when Sitzilok got elected, we uh we talked about it because he had uh obviously he was a Democrat and he had a Democratic House and Democratic Assembly. And uh, you know, I know I was fairly new and I kept saying, right, now's the time. Let's get rid of right to work, let's get rid of right to work. Uh and people were just me, kind of like, oh, don't talk about that right now. I was like, what are you talking about? That's what we need to do. And he told me we'll get rid of it my first session of the second term. That's when we'll do it. And you ruined that because you never he never got a second term.

SPEAKER_00

I I just I I I would be remiss saying that that's not the panacea that you're describing. I I think there's a lot of more nuances to that. And uh, you know, it's it's Michigan did it.

SPEAKER_03

It's uh always uh for the record.

SPEAKER_00

I know.

SPEAKER_03

So I I I just happen to have a top five ranked states for unemployment. DC's one, California's two, Nevada three, Michigan's four, Oregon's five.

SPEAKER_00

Hawaii's not in there?

SPEAKER_03

No. No. I I think that's changed since uh especially since they're they're doing the dry dock at Pearl Harbor. We actually have a lot of people from Las Vegas.

SPEAKER_00

Traditionally, uh Hawaii's been in there.

SPEAKER_03

I believe it. Yeah. No, they have a they have a lot of construction projects.

SPEAKER_00

You know, people right now. I mean, I look at it as an incubator here to the matter, right? It what is their economy based on? Tourism. Yeah. So yeah. Why do you think tourism sound? I think it's a combination of of a lot of things. One is is world politics, two is supply chains, tariffs. Um, that could be part of it. And and I think just the economy is trying to find its way. I think the the the encumbrance of China in the world market has had is finally come to bear. And we're finally starting to see how um their conglomeration or their their olary um is is actually taking effect across the across the world. So I think once we figure out better um manufacturing processes domestically or even with our friendly uh nation states, uh we'll be better off in the long run. So I I uh hopefully it's it's a pendulum in fact currently. Yeah, we're at the the height of the pendulum and we're gonna be going the other way here shortly. So I I don't and I don't here's here's an important piece, and just give me some deference here is you can't paint it as a Biden-Trump issue, okay, because uh presidential administrations go across several decades. They don't happen the exact time that they're in office, right? Okay, and you know, it it changes over time, and I think the you know, one of the things the uh the idea behind Trump and tariffs is is to domesticate jobs here in the United States manufacturing in the United States, but you can't build a factory in 10 months, right? And it takes a while to to do that. And so what do you do in in lieu of domesticating um your workforce is you you you do a reciprocal tariffs to to whatever you seem deem to be appropriate in order to balance those scales. Now some of the shotgun effort is is is hard to understand. Yeah. Um but I think uh um I think we're do you know the proverbial question in politics, are you better off now than when the person in the office uh took office? And and my answer is yes.

SPEAKER_03

So last two minutes left. I just something popped up on my somebody sent me an article. Democrats bet on Trump slump to take back Nevada. National Democrats see incumbent Joe Lombardo as the top governor to unseat this midterm election. What are your thoughts? We'll close out with that if that's okay with Daniel.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, exactly. And um one is is you have to put a lot of uh some of those polls you can't trust. Okay, I'll just put it that way. And and one in particular that they're they're utilizing there is um a very bad pollster. I'm very comfortable in the numbers that my team uh are providing. Um but the reality is um my opponent is trying to he uses the term uh the Lombardo Trump uh economy, okay? But one thing I would I pride myself is I'm all things Nevada, right? And what happens in the beltway in the federal space is completely different than what is domesticated in the state of Nevada. And I I pride myself of acting on my own two feet, not Donald Trump's two feet. And I I mean he's a Republican, I support Republicans, you know, and not no candidate is a hundred percent. Nobody is. Nobody's a hundred percent, and you have to take the good with the bad in the indifference of it. Um, but I believe um he's better for for America, and I believe I'm better for the state of Nevada.

SPEAKER_03

Fair enough. Right on. Okay, thank you so much for gonna appreciate it, man. Thank you.