Data centers, Indian Country, and Trump’s regulatory rollback bill

Nevada is not one of them. In last week’s election, voters in lots of states approved measures to spend more money on urban public transit systems (see below). 

Some people (raises hand) might be disappointed that the funding methods in several of the ballot measures involved raising regressive sales taxes. Nevada’s tax structure is a monument to the premise that people struggling to get by should pay the highest percentage of their incomes in state taxes and rich people should pay a far lower percentage of theirs. So sales taxes would almost assuredly be the method Nevada policymakers would advocate to fund an urban rapid transit system. 

That’s if state and local officials were to fund one. Which they won’t any time soon. Which is weird because all the movers and shakers who crow about bringing sports teams and splashy events to Southern Nevada’s spectacle-based economy also love to gush and swoon about how there’s simply nothing Las Vegas can’t do because it’s so special. Unless the subject is rapid mass transit.

IN THE NEVADA CURRENT

Nevada’s senators voted to advance this bill to cut back regulations for energy project permits. The state’s senior senator says she won’t vote for final passage as long as it cuts tribes out of the regulatory process, which is what the bill does as currently written. But that provision isn’t the only one prompting complaints from Nevadans about the legislation. For instance, it appears Trump’s regulatory rollback could also accelerate the buildout of new natural gas power plants for data centers. Jeniffer Solis reports: Citing data center, tribal sovereignty fears, Nevadans push back against Trump-backed permit bill

Affordability, you say? As per the mini-rant atop the newsletter, the public transit votes in several states last week “suggest that for a wide swath of voters, transit funding isn’t competing with affordability concerns. It’s an answer to them.” Via Grist:  The affordability election delivered billions for public transit

Getting interesting… “In this election, the American people called for change,” observed Maryland Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen yesterday. Via Maryland Matters: Van Hollen says he will challenge Schumer to be next Senate majority leader

Before Van Hollen made that announcement, he made this one. Via the DC bureau: Senators demand end to Iran war funding in bill averting shutdown

Good luck