Nevada legislature where we find The Nevada Independent reporter, Sean Golonka.

Sean, The Nevada Independent is reporting some big news regarding Major League Baseball's Oakland A's possibly moving to Las Vegas.

What do you know?

-Hi, Amber.

Thanks for having me.

Basically, what we've learned is the Oakland A's have reached an agreement with Red Rock Resorts to purchase nearly 50 acres of land around Tropicana and the I-15, just north of Allegiant Stadium.

-And that is for the purpose of building a baseball stadium.

What have you heard from the A's themselves?

-So we've heard the stadium would cost around $1 billion.

And there's some other aspects of development in that area that would bring the total cost to about 1.5 billion.

You know, it's already a pretty heavily congested area between T-Mobile Arena and Allegiant Stadium.

There's been some talk of a pedestrian land bridge.

And then the big, kind of, unknown right now is there's some kind of tax agreement that would have to be worked out in the legislature that we don't really have a lot of details on what that looks like at this point.

-It begs the question: How would this be funded, the $1.5 billion?

-Right.

So what we understand is the A's would be largely responsible for that financing.

You know, the Governor has been very clear in his opposition to raising taxes.

And I think generally, there's opposition to using public money to help finance the stadium.

But there could be things like transferable tax credits or reductions in the taxes that the A's pay to make it a little, you know, easier for them to come in and build that stadium without paying more in taxes.

-You gotta tell me what a transferable tax is.

-Basically, they're credits against the taxes that the business or organization would owe, reducing the amount that they owe in taxes.

But transferable tax credits are a pretty unique thing in that they can be sold to other companies.

For example, Tesla sold some of their tax credits to MGM after the big 2014 deal that they had.

-Okay, so what you're talking about in terms of financing, that is the bill that would have to go through the legislature, according to The Nevada Independent 's reporting?

-Right.

And as of Thursday morning, we don't have a lot of details on exactly what that looks like.

We're still working on finding that out.

And, you know, it's going to kind of proceed through the rest of the legislative session.

-What have you been able to find out in terms of who's supporting this up in Carson City?

-So it sounds like there's support from really the top leadership: from the Governor, from Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager.

Really at the very top.

And I don't think we know much beyond that, other than hearing that, you know, some lower ranking lawmakers have been briefed on the deal.

But in terms of overall support from the legislature, I think we're still working on seeing where that lies.

-And what do you know about the lobbying efforts of the Oakland A's?

-So back earlier in the session, the A's hired two pretty high profile lobbying firms.

I think they have somewhere in the range of 18 lobbyists registered with them.

So they really have a full court press lobbying effort going on up in Carson City to bring this deal home and really to get probably the best deal possible for them outside of Oakland to get that new stadium.

-How would that compare to some of the other lobbying groups?

How many lobbyists typically make up a group?

-Well, it really depends, I guess, depending on, you know, the size of the company and what lobbying firms they are contracting with.

But I would say it's a pretty sizable lobbying group to be representing just one company.

-All right.

Sean Golonka, thank you for helping us understand that breaking news.

According to the Review-Journal , they spoke with the A's president, and this would be breaking ground in 2024 on the stadium with an opening season in 2027.

That again, is according to the Review-Journal .

Let's now move on to the topic of our show, and that is housing.

There are a lot of bills within the Nevada legislature this session addressing housing.

What stands out to you from them?

-I think a couple of things that stand out to me, one is rent control.

We saw basically a failed effort last year during the election in North Las Vegas to enact a local version of rent control, basically capping rent increases at a certain level.

I think we're all aware of how much rents have been increasing in Las Vegas in recent years.

And so there's really been a conversation about how do we limit those increases so that people can afford to stay in their homes.

And there's one bill, Senate Bill 426, that's backed by the Culinary Union.

That would be kind of a statewide cap on rent increases tied to the annual inflation rate, but overall limited at 10%.

-And there was another one, AB 298, caps rent increases at 10% for people 62 years and older and those with disabilities.

Among those two, which do you think has the best chance of passing, of becoming law?

-Yeah, Amber, I think the one that you just mentioned certainly has a better chance because it's a little bit more limited.

Earlier this year, we heard Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager express a little bit more support for providing that rent control for those more vulnerable populations rather than kind of a blanket rent control policy.

-And if it was to get to the Governor's desk, what has been his policy or his thoughts on rent control?

-You know, I think we're not super clear on that.

The Governor has largely avoided weighing in on pending legislation.

I think there's potentially a little bit more support there for local rent control.

There's another bill this session that basically would allow local governments to enact their own rent control ordinances.

And that got some support from legislative Republicans, so perhaps that would have a better chance of getting a signature from Governor Lombardo.

-Another bill meant to keep tenants in their homes is regarding summary evictions, AB 340.

What can you tell us about that and its progress?

-Right.

So it did make it through the first major deadline, first committee passage earlier this month.

Basically, the summary eviction process in Nevada is pretty nationally unique, where it requires an eviction, a tenant facing eviction, to initiate the court proceedings, rather than the landlord.

And this would basically overhaul the process to instead require the landlord initiate those proceedings and, you know, make it a little less onerous on the tenant.

-And this is something that has been in a past session.

Why are lawmakers pushing for it again?

How good are their odds of getting it through?

-I think we continue to see the push for this bill, because there are a lot of lawmakers concerned about the housing crisis in the state in Las Vegas and people, you know, facing eviction.

I think coming out of the pandemic and some of the rental assistance that we had then, there are a lot more people who are unable to afford their rents, and so they're now facing eviction.

And I think kind of with that trend, there might just be a change in perspective more widely in the legislature to be open to this policy.

-Sean Golonka, last thing: You are a tremendous follow on Twitter, and partly because you tweet out "Overheard in the Legislature," some of the funny and unique things you hear.

What's been your favorite so far?

-You know, I think one of my favorite was the very first one I started the thread with, where one of the legislative police officers referred to another one as "Ghost Rider."

You just get some funny out-of-context things with listening in on other conversations in the building.

So it's a lot of fun.

-Yeah, it is fun to follow you.

And thank you so much for joining us today.

-Thanks, Amber.