FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New report examines taxpayer funded lobbying, construction overbilling, missing funds, and millions spent on pickleball courts

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – September 30, 2026: Today, Nevada Policy released its 2026 Piggy Booklet, which highlights waste, questionable spending, and the lack of transparency in Nevada government’s expenditures of taxpayer dollars. 

The publication draws on public records requests, government audits, payroll data, and other publicly available records to examine how state and local governments spend public money. The Piggy Booklet includes cases involving millions of dollars in waste in public employee compensation, school construction contracts, missing funds, government lobbying, and misuse of public-land development.

“Our Nevadan government doesn’t volunteer this information. Someone has to ask for it, wait for it, and analyze it line by line,” said Kaeley Cook, president of Nevada Policy. “This is the work Nevada Policy does every day. We fight for transparency for our citizens and call out the need for government oversight. In a time of massive government fraud, our goal is to continue to be the resource policy center that the residents of Nevada turn to, so they have the facts they need to advocate for themselves and their hard earned money.”

Sadly, the stories in the Piggy Booklet are not exceptions to the rule, but rather small examples of a larger problem. The individual examples are significant not simply because of the dollar amounts involved, but because they demonstrate the recurring problems with transparency, oversight, and internal controls within the Nevada state and local government.

Nevada Policy’s transparency efforts are supported by its Transparent Nevada project, which compiles public salary and pension records, obtained through hundreds of public records requests, and makes the information available to the public.

The 2026 Piggy Booklet is available at NevadaPolicy.org/waste

About Nevada Policy

With a mission to promote ideas that encourage free market solutions, protect individual freedom, and eliminate unnecessary governmental restrictions, Nevada Policy is the policy resource center fighting to protect and further freedom for the people of Nevada. 

Media Contact:
Sarah Snyder
Nevada Policy
pr@nevadapolicy.org
(702) 222-0642