Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar introduced SB75 on behalf of his office at a Feb. hearing of the Nevada Senate Judiciary Committee, proposing to move specified business-license fee amounts into regulation and to expand the secretary of state’s ability to accept forms in languages other than English. The bill also includes broad statutory “cleanup” and trademark-unification provisions affecting multiple chapters of the Nevada Revised Statutes related to commercial recordings and business licensing.

The measure’s sponsor said the intent is to let the state respond more quickly to market conditions and reduce administrative burdens for small businesses, particularly entrepreneurs who do not use English as a first language. “You shouldn't have to hire an attorney to deal with the secretary of state's office,” Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar said, summarizing the office’s push to modernize the Silver Flume business portal and add language access.

Aguilar told the committee that the secretary’s office launched Project Orion after a $15,000,000 appropriation in 2023 to overhaul the Silver Flume portal, and that the upgrades have reduced customer service hold times and increased filings. He said the commercial recordings division generated approximately $200,000,000 for the state general fund in 2024 and that the portal’s fixes had addressed more than 600 bugs. The secretary described language access as a practical step to reduce errors and administrative work: translated forms, he said, “encourages people that Nevada is open for business.”

Committee members pressed for limits on the regulatory authority. Several senators — including Senator Krasner and Senator Lang — asked whether moving fee amounts to regulations would allow future secretaries to raise fees without sufficient legislative review. Chief Deputy Gabriel De Cara told the committee some fees may be lowered by amendment (for example, a $100 dissolution fee that deters companies from cleaning up defaulted records), but said the office would seek guardrails. “Any price increase would have to come to the full legislature,” De Cara said when describing an amendment the office is considering that would require legislative approval for fee increases and reserve regulatory action for fee reductions or adjustments.

Opponents at the hearing urged stronger statutory limits. Janine Hanson, identified as state president of Nevada Families for Freedom, said she supports fee reductions but opposed delegating authority to raise fees by regulation and warned future officeholders could misuse the power. “If they are allowed to circumvent the constitution … we have to be concerned about what happens then,” Hanson said, citing the Nevada constitutional requirement that the legislature approve taxes or fees by two-thirds vote. Joy Trushenski, a nonpaid conservative lobbyist, also opposed allowing the secretary to set business-license amounts by regulation and objected to accepting non-English filings, saying English should be the common language for official filings.

Business groups and trade associations expressed conditional support or neutrality while asking for explicit guardrails. Trey Abney of the National Federation of Independent Business and Matthew Taylor of the Nevada Registered Agent Association said they appreciate increased flexibility to reduce fees and modernize the system but want clear language preventing unilateral fee increases. The Vegas Chamber and the Retail Association of Nevada said they are neutral pending clarifying language that any fee increases would require legislative review or approval by the legislative commission.

The bill’s language on multilingual filings would allow the secretary’s office to accept records filed in languages other than English if the office “determines that sufficient resources are available to provide for a verified translation” into English. Committee members asked the office to limit the scope to routine forms and not to complex legal filings; Aguilar and staff said the intent is to translate common public-facing forms (for example, registration or formation forms) rather than detailed corporate agreements or ownership amendments until a pipeline of translators and quality controls is in place.

No formal amendments or votes were recorded at the hearing. The secretary’s office said it expects SB75 will be amended as it advances and recommended an amendment to require approval by the legislative commission for any regulatory fee increases; opponents asked for statutory assurances that the constitutional two-thirds requirement for new taxes or fees would be preserved. Committee discussion and public testimony focused on balancing modernization, access for non-English-speaking entrepreneurs, and legislative oversight of fees.

Proponents said language access and fee flexibility would help bring informal or microbusinesses into the formal economy, allow access to banking and capital, and reduce administrative costs caused by translation mistakes. Opponents urged careful drafting to preserve the legislature’s constitutional role and to protect transparency for public records. The committee closed the hearing on SB75 after public testimony and received no in-committee votes that day.

SB75 now moves to the next committee steps where lawmakers are likely to consider amendments on legislative oversight for fee increases and the specific scope of the language-access provisions.