AFSCME Members Against Corporate Studio Giveaway

AFSCME Local 4041 members are speaking out against a proposal to give away millions of dollars to Hollywood studios - a corporate giveaway that will come at the expense of public services. 

Nevada is not in the position now to give away millions of dollars to corporate Hollywood studios, let alone in two, four, or in the fifteen years these studios are looking to lock in a handout. The Governor’s own Office of Economic Development report also shows that this is a bad deal for Nevada: the state will not see significant returns on this investment.  

The best investment for our state is our communities, not Hollywood studios. 

When the state must make tough budget decisions, state workers are always the ones who are asked to make sacrifices first. Over the years, we’ve been asked to take furloughs, forgo cost of living increases, and take on extra work while jobs are held vacant. 

It’s not just our families who are asked to make sacrifices – when the state cuts back on public services, it's all Nevadans who suffer. It’s our elderly neighbors who have to make hard choices between buying food or medication. It’s the family down the street who can’t get the support they need for their child with a disability. It’s the new high school graduate who needs help navigating the college experience when they get to campus. 

As essential, lifesaving services like Medicaid and SNAP are being cut at the federal level, the state must step up and invest in Nevadans, not in Hollywood corporations.  

The biennial budget passed this year already had to be cut down from initial projections, and state programs will face budget gaps when upcoming federal cuts go into effect. The federal government put states in this position when Congress prioritized corporate subsidies over hard working families. Now Nevada’s leaders look to do the same. 

AFSCME in the News

State worker union joins chorus against Nevada film tax expansion proposal

The Nevada Independent, Tabitha Mueller, October 15th, 2025

“Working in social services, we can see federal changes coming through where we’re going to be having to pay more, trying to come up with more money for expenses, and it just doesn’t seem to make sense to give away Nevada’s money, especially giveaways to help people outside of Nevada,” said Nalani Page, an AFSCME member and a family service specialist with the Division of Social Services.

Speaking as a member of the union, Blaine Harper, a staff research associate for UNR, said that looming federal changes and an uncertain economy should force any special session to deal with economic issues first.

“It doesn’t seem like the Nevada economy is the real reason,” she said. “To me, that’s what the purpose of a special session should be.”

Terra Carter, another AFSCME member and a developmental support technician at the Desert Regional Center in Las Vegas, which offers services for people with disabilities, said she’s not automatically opposed to bringing in movie studios to diversify the economy or increase job potential. But she said it’s not clear where the money is coming from, and doesn’t want it to be at the expense of state workers or people receiving state services.

Carter has worked for the state for more than 25 years. During the Great Recession, she said that she and her wife, who also works for the state, faced furloughs and other cost-saving measures that made life financially difficult.

She had to pick up a side job to afford the cost of housing and other living expenses. 

“It just seems like whatever happens in Nevada, the first thing they want to do is cut things from state workers,” Carter said.

The next major film studios could be in Nevada if some unions have their way

The Associated Press, Jessica Hill, October 19, 2025

Jared Kluesner, a psychiatric nurse at the Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health campus in Las Vegas and member of AFSCME, said the state should prioritize public services for people with mental health issues.

Kluesner wants Sony and Warner Bros. to build a film studio facility and create more jobs for Nevadans, but “if they’re going to do it at the cost of public services and funds that should be allocated to state workers, then that’s not really solving any problems.”

Unions pick sides in debate over possible expansion of Nevada's film tax credit program

News 4 NBC Reno, Ben Margiott and Matt Seeman, October 15, 2025

"But Wednesday, the union representing state and local government workers sided with several environmental, education and progressive groups in opposing what they call a 'fiscally irresponsible and politically indefensible' public subsidy."