On a dark Wednesday evening, 500 leaders from Nevadans for the Common Good lit up the gym at West Prep Academy and assembled to secure commitments from federal, gubernatorial, and state candidates at a nonpartisan accountability assembly at West Prep Academy. 

With pressure from leaders, candidates committed to work with NCG to increase affordable housing units, invest in public education, increase funding for FQHCs, protect Medicaid expansion, shine a light upon delays in the citizenship process, and create a database to protect consumers from predatory payday lending.

During the forum, leaders shared their personal experiences including on healthcare.  NCG leader Taj Ainlay testified that qualifying for Medicaid enabled him to see a doctor “for the first time in seven years.”  Agatha Ramirez shared that it took her five months to become a US citizen and that it had taken her brother-in-law nineteen months and counting.

Among the candidates who attended were gubernatorial candidate Steve Sisolak (D), senatorial candidate Jacky Rosen (D), congressional candidates Steven Horsford (D), Susie Lee (D), Danny Tarkanian (R), and Representative Dina Titus (D).

Candidates Asked Views on Pressing Issues at Las Vegas Forum, Las Vegas Review-Journal [pdf]

Tarkanian, Lee Sole Congressional Opponents at Wide-Ranging Candidates Forum, Las Vegas Sun [pdf]

After 2017 Shortcomings, Advocates Prepare to Push for New Consumer Protections on Payday Loans, Nevada Independent [pdf]

[Excerpt below]

“They didn’t read the contract, they didn’t understand or whatever. But just from a Christian standpoint, that what’s Jesus came to do, to help the lowly,” Robin Collins from Green Valley United Methodist Church said. “He came to help the sick, He didn’t come to help the well. So we’re supposed to take care of our brothers and sisters, take care of a widow, take care of an orphan.”

Members of the payday lending industry say they are unfairly stigmatized and provide much-needed access to quick credit that traditional banks or lending institutions do not. Their arguments are bolstered by dozens of lobbyists and hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to top candidates.

Still, it’s been more than a decade since the last substantial changes to consumer protection laws on high-interest loans, and advocates — primarily general welfare groups like the Legal Aid of Southern Nevada, a cadre of progressive organizations and the faith-based coalition Nevadans for the Common Good — are looking to the 2019 Legislature as a chance to push for new consumer protections and limits on high-interest lenders.

[Photo Credit: David Calvert, Nevada Independent]

After 2017 Shortcomings, Advocates Prepare to Push for New Consumer Protections on Payday Loans, Nevada Independent

Leaders with 'Nevadans for the Common Good' have begun building a constituency of voters who are educated about the dangers of payday lending by holding civic academies on the subject.  The next civic academy is scheduled to take place at Las Vegas University United Methodist Church.

Community Groups Urge Nevadans to Learn Risks of Payday Loans, Public News Service

650 NCG leaders packed the house at St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church for a nonpartisan accountability assembly with three gubernatorial candidates. Leaders succeeded in leveraging bipartisan commitments from all three to protect Medicaid, invest new tax revenue into education and more.

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In response to public pressure by 'Nevadans for the Common Good' to expand funding for Meals on Wheels in Nevada, Henderson and Boulder City Councils approved resolutions urging the state legislature and Governor Brian Sandoval to increase state funding for the program by $5 million every two years. Already, the Governor has responded by including $1.5 million in his budget proposal for the food program, a +100% increase over current funding levels. Leaders are pushing for more.

The meal delivery program targets vulnerable seniors. At current funding levels, the program is reported to provide more than 300 Henderson seniors +112,000 meals per year. However, a city spokesperson reports that nearly 300 additional seniors are on the waiting list.

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Backed by 300 leaders at a 'Nevadans for the Common Good' accountability assembly, Marsha Rodriguez told her story about the fragility of independence as a senior. 72 years old, Rodriguez described waiting 6 months to get into a Nevada Medicaid waiver program, the Home and Community Based Waiver, which helps pay for non-medical services that are essential for some aging seniors to continue living at home. After seven years of receiving non-medical care, she fears that privatization of Medicaid services would reduce access to those services and push her into a nursing home. NCG leader Barbara Paulsen noted that the cost of at-home services for six or seven people is about equal with the cost of covering one person in a nursing home.

State legislators in attendance carefully listened and soon followed up with a delegation of NCG leaders, promising that Medicaid privatization of services would NOT happen in 2016, and that the legislative proposal would move more slowly, transparently, and inclusively.

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At a 300-person assembly of 'Nevadans for the Common Good,' state legislators publicly supported NCG goals to address the state's teacher shortage and to ensure that a plan to privatize some medicaid services in Nevada is transparent and includes meaningful public participation.

State legislators Senator Michael Robertson and Assemblymen Paul Anderson and John Hambrick listened as Marsha Rodriguez told her story about the fragility of independence as a senior. 72 years old, Rodriguez described waiting 6 months to get into a Nevada Medicaid waiver program, the Home and Community Based Waiver, which helps pay for non-medical services that are essential for some aging seniors to continue living at home. After seven years of receiving non-medical care, she fears that privatization of Medicaid services would reduce access to those services and push her into a nursing home. NCG leader Barbara Paulsen noted that the cost of at-home services for six or seven people is about equal with the cost of covering one person in a nursing home.

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Las Vegas, NV - Leaders of Nevadans for the Common Good cried 'foul' when a dead bill proposing to privatize the provision of Medicaid services was kept alive through unnatural means. Though voted down, it remained in the Assembly Ways and Means Committee through an exemption sparing it from normal deadlines. That same language was then grafted onto a separate bill (SB 514) and approved by the legislature the day before it adjourned.

"We are just concerned about transparency," said Barbara Paulsen, whose church in Boulder City is a member of NCG. The proposed change could impact 54,000 people statewide. ""If there's a transition, it needs to be carefully planned," Paulsen said Wednesday. "It's a major decision and people need to be aware of it and need to have an understanding of the steps being taken and the rationale and ability to comment on them."

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Leaders of 'Nevadans for the Common Good' were among the heavy-weights listed as supporters of a proposed tax plan that would generate $430 million for Nevada public schools over the next two years. At a press conference the morning of Governor Sandoval's presentation of the proposal, NCG leader Rev. Dr. Marta Poling-Goldenne called this "a historic opportunity to improve our public schools and invest in our children."

One week prior, 'Nevadans for the Common Good' met with the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance at Holy Spirit Lutheran Church in Las Vegas; both organizations voted to support the business license proposal. LVGEA cited a study it had commissioned on the impact of the business license fee proposal, which concluded that the "negligible negative impact" in Southern Nevada would be far outweighed by the benefits of improved public schools.

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