Legislature seeks roughly $100 million biennial appropriation for Legislative Council Bureau as IT, staffing and new Las Vegas buildings drive costs

Senator Marilyn Dondero Loop, chair of the joint Senate Finance Committee and Assembly Ways and Means Committee, heard the Legislative Council Bureau(LCB) present its 202527 biennium budget request, with Acting Director Diane Thornton saying the bureau is seeking general fund appropriations of about $99.7 million for fiscal year 2026 and roughly $100 million for fiscal year 2027.

The request includes what Thornton described as an appropriation increase of $21.5 million in fiscal year 2026 and $21.8 million in fiscal year 2027, driven largely by information technology upgrades, new permanent positions to staff recently acquired Southern Nevada facilities, and operating costs associated with those buildings. "More than half of that increase is due to increases in IT, which includes upgrades to public meeting technology, cyber security measures, data pipeline between the North and South to ensure secure access to legislative functions," Thornton said.

Why it matters: The LCB budget supplies staff, legal support and the technology that runs the Legislature and interim committees. Committee members pressed LCB leaders for details on staffing counts, recurring costs tied to the new Las Vegas facilities, and how the bureau can keep services accessible to Nevadans across the state.

Most important details

- Staffing and divisions: Thornton told the committee the LCBcomprises five divisions (Administrative, Audit, Fiscal Analysis, Legal and Research). The administrative division is the largest and the bureau included 207 full‑time permanent positions in FY26 and 273 for FY27 in that division. The legal division is budgeted for 95 positions in FY26 and 100 in FY27; the audit division remains at 49 positions and the fiscal analysis division at 35. The research division totals 56 full‑time positions with two net new positions listed.

- Southern Nevada facilities and use by other branches: Thornton said the Legislature moved out of the Grant Sawyer Office Building and put 3 buildings in the McCarran Complex into legislative use; Building 17 contains hearing rooms. Assembly Speaker Jason Yeager (referred to in the hearing as "Speaker Yeager") and other members asked about executive branch use of those hearing rooms. Thornton said the rooms are available to executive agencies but that the Legislature pays staffing and operating costs. She gave a per‑meeting staffing estimate of $3,997. "For per hour staff time includes 5 to 7 audio visual staff, 5 legislative police, 1 administrative staff per hour, plus 2 hours on either end of the meeting for set up and reset," Thornton said, and then confirmed the per‑meeting figure of "$3,997." Thornton said historical usage was roughly sixty percent legislative use and forty percent executive use.

- IT and supply cost pressures: Tyler Sailor, Chief Information Officer for the LCB, told the committee that suppliers have notified the bureau of expected hardware price increases. "We've got notice from most of our suppliers ... that they expect between a 20 to 30% increase for just the actual hardware we use to do our jobs over the next year," Sailor said. Sailor said open proposals were rescinded and the bureau is obtaining requotes; the bureau flagged that some of the increased cost is reflected in the IT portion of the budget request.

- Accessibility investments: Committee members pressed on accessibility. Sailor and Thornton described software purchases, closed captioning in multiple languages and document remediation to improve website and meeting accessibility, and said the bureau has hired accessibility staff and trained personnel to use accessibility tools. "We've purchased a few different software packages that let us do things like monitor our website, to make sure that it is accessible," Sailor told the committee.

- Other LCB accounts included: Thornton also presented the interim Senate and Assembly administrative account (budget 2626), which includes funding for seven full‑time positions each year and $2.4 million in general fund appropriations for FY26 and FY27 to support interim operations. The State Printing Office (budget 1330) was presented as self‑funded from sales, with 19 permanent positions and sales revenue budgeted at about $3 million per fiscal year.

Committee questions and follow up

Members asked for follow‑up details that Thornton agreed to provide, including (1) historical counts and cost data showing how many times executive agencies used the southern hearing rooms and the total staffing cost for those uses, and (2) vacancy rates and the fill status for the positions planned for Southern Nevada. Thornton said the Southern Nevada deputy director maintains detailed records and agreed to provide that information to the committee.

Background and context

The Legislature used prior appropriations to acquire space in the McCarran Complex and to construct two parking structures for legislative use in Southern Nevada. Thornton said some southern buildings became fully operational in July 2024 and that Building 17 was available for committee use by February 2025. The bureau said a portion of the requested increases reflects one‑time startup items and recurring costs for staffing, security, food services and audiovisual support in those facilities.

Ending

Chair Dondero Loop closed the LCB items after members thanked bureau staff for their work and LCB leaders for providing the requested budget detail. Thornton and staff will provide the committee with the additional data requested on southern facility usage, vacancy rates and hardware requotes.