Drug trafficking, pay inequity and AB522

At a time when drug trafficking is at an all time high due to China sending exuberant amounts of poisonous chemicals to Mexico, and the Cartels making those chemicals into deadly Fentanyl pills and other illegal substances, the deadly drugs are making their way to every state in the U.S. via “open borders”and that means more opportunity to reach urban and rural Nevadans.

With those truths, and an unfortunate “governance” by past politicians and legislators, the Nevada Police Union stated “We continuously sound the alarm on pay inequity that directly causes record-high turnover and vacancy rates of state police, which leaves Nevadans less safe. The Nevada Highway Patrol has reached such a critical level in staffing that the department can no longer provide 24/7 coverage.” The Nevada Department of Public Safety stated “The Nevada State Police (NSP) faces staffing, recruitment, and retention challenges. We will ensure that our service and support to the public continues without gaps by utilizing overtime, on-call, and callout operations as necessary.”

Enter Govenor Joe Lombardo’s signing of AB522 https://www.leg.state.nv.us/Session/82nd2023/Bills/AB522, a bill providing the largest raises for state employees in decades, and one of five key measures used to fund the state government over the next two years. The raises will range from 10-13% beginning in July with 4% raises the following year. SB440 has granted “an immediate 2% raise to all state employees effective April 1st that will fund arbitration for back pay owed to state public safety officers.”

The signing of AB522 marks meaningful progress on passing the state’s budget following threats from the governor himself to veto the state budget if Democratic lawmakers did not pass his top priorities. And, what a priority this was! This will not only encourage current state employees to be reminded of what is at stake (one, being the influx of narcotics), but to encourage interested applicants to apply for state of Nevada jobs with the most urgent being Nevada State Police/ NHP, and NV Public Safety workers; all three being paramount for the detection, apprehension, and lock-up of drug traffickers that slither like snakes down Nevada Highways distributing poison to dealers who keep addicts addicted, and to the new-nieve candidates who haven’t a clue of what they are getting themselves into.