Assemblyman Greg Koenig Outlines Legislative Priorities

Nevada Assemblyman and Fallon native Greg Koenig said looking out for the best interests of the rural counties and upholding Governor Joe Lombardo are his biggest priorities for the 2025 legislative session, which starts next week, during a talk at the Lyon County Commission meeting on January 16.

Koenig said the top priority for Republicans in the legislature is to back the governor and make sure he looks good and gets reelected. "We picked up one seat this last election, which kept us out of the super minority," Koenig said. "If we were in the super minority, then they would have been able to override all 75 of vetoes the governor vetoed. And so, by picking up that one seat, we were able to sustain the vetoes and keep those, in my opinion, 75 bad bills from becoming law."

Koenig said his district has a 2-1 ratio of Republicans to Democrats, the second highest per percentage of Republicans in the state. But the legislature, he said, had a 3-1 Democrat ratio. "And how that works is, the chair of every single committee is a Democrat, and they decide which bills they want to get heard," he said. "So, any bill that you have, and you want to be heard that has any teeth to it, they won't even let it have a hearing."

As a result, Koenig has taken on the role of advocating for rural areas, noting that his district is one of the few that primarily represent rural Nevada without including Reno, Carson City, or Las Vegas. "So, everyone comes to me and looks to me for to champion the rurals, and that's what I've done with a lot of my bills," stated Koenig.

One of Koenig's bills would allow volunteer firefighters to get a break on their vehicle registration. "I know Fernley is a paid fire district, but a lot of the other ones in the rurals, especially, they might have some paid leadership, but a lot of it is done by volunteers and they're really struggling with some of their numbers," said the assemblyman. "So, we're going to try to find some benefit to help them want to participate in a volunteer fire fighting." Many rural community volunteer fire departments are not well funded. 

Another of Koenig's bills would change how rural emergency rooms and hospitals are classified. "Right now, the way emergency rooms are categorized, the rural hospitals can't reach the highest level of classification, which means they don't get reimbursed as much," he explained. This bill would help Yerington, Fallon, and potentially Tonopah if they can qualify. "We're going to try to make it so that the rural emergency room hospitals can reach that higher classification and get some better reimbursement."