State-Level Institutional Capacity Assessment
NV · Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) · agriculture tourism
Population
3.2M
GSP
$215B
Total Budget
$13B
Budget / capita
$4,063
Legal Regime
Home Rule
Binding Constraint
Anchor-Dependent · Primary constraint
Reducing Nevada's gaming/tourism revenue volatility through economic diversification while building modernized service delivery for a rapidly growing population. NV has CIO Galluzi + EITS Digital Government Services + persistent OSIT innovation office through admin changes — but with 4 innovation markers, no R4A, and 80% federal-land share, NV operates as an anchor-dependent economy concentrated on Las Vegas hospitality. Cluster C work positions the state to leverage gaming-tax surpluses for diversification rather than competing with Tesla/Apple anchors directly.
6-Dimension Assessment
Nevada's economy is the most gaming/tourism-concentrated in the US. Las Vegas (75% of state population) anchors hospitality, gaming, conventions, and entertainment — sectors that collapsed 90% during COVID and remain structurally volatile. Reno-Sparks has diversified through Tesla Gigafactory, data centers (Apple, Switch, Google), and logistics. Northern Nevada agriculture and mining (gold, lithium — Thacker Pass) contribute marginally. The state has no income tax (Constitutional prohibition since 1864), making sales/gaming revenue cycles existential. Federal-land share is 80% (highest in lower 48), driving federal-grants dependency. Lombardo (R) governs with a Democratic legislature — significant divided-government dynamics.
Peer States
Arizona
Systematizationhigh growth western
Florida
Systematizationhigh growth southern
New Mexico
Anchor-Dependentfederal installation dependent
Peer states share structural profile (cluster, scale, archetype). Peer match is intra-level — states match states.
Innovation Pathway Recommendations
Establishing and resourcing a state-level digital service team (NJ OOI, CA ODI, GA Technology Authority, MN IT Services, UT OOI, FL Digital Service) to modernize benefits delivery, citizen-facing portals, and inter-agency data exchange. Draws on the USDS / Code for America playbook applied at state scale, the Beeck Center's Digital Government Network (formerly Digital Service Network, merged early 2026), and Bloomberg's What Works Cities adaptation.
For Cluster C (Anchor-Dependent)
For Cluster C states, leverage the anchor institution's technical capacity — military bases have IT infrastructure, federal labs have engineers, research universities have CS programs willing to partner.
H1 absorption pattern: 'state digital transformation' becomes a multi-year ERP procurement that ports paper processes to PDFs without changing the underlying service experience. Healthcare.gov pre-rescue is the canonical case at federal level; CMS-funded MITA Medicaid IT projects are the state equivalent. The H2+ test is whether the state is building durable internal digital service capacity or just procuring vendor-led platforms.
Building state-level institutional infrastructure for data-driven decision-making across major budget line items and policy decisions. Draws on the Results for America State Standard of Excellence framework, the Pew-MacArthur Results First Initiative, and the state-government adaptations of the J-PAL / Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab evaluation methodology applied through state-level offices (Tennessee Office of Evidence and Impact, MN Performance Management, NC Office of Strategic Partnerships).
For Cluster C (Anchor-Dependent)
For Cluster C states, leverage the federal-lab or research-university anchor institution as evaluation capacity. National labs and federal research centers have rigorous evaluation expertise; state-anchor partnerships at the evaluation level cost less than building parallel state capacity.
H1 absorption pattern: state Office of Evidence and Impact stands up but produces reports no one reads; performance metrics defined by departments themselves, optimizing for legibility rather than impact. Or, R4A certification achieved but practices don't outlive the certification cycle — evaluation office staffed but not influential on actual budget decisions. The H2+ test is whether evidence actually changes the marginal-dollar allocation between programs from one budget cycle to the next.
Cities in Nevada (1)
K-12 School System
How the state’s public school system is governed, what it spends per pupil, and where it stands on the Nation’s Report Card.
State Community Context
Improve This Assessment
This is a living diagnostic. Spot something wrong or out of date? Suggest a sourced edit, or add context for other public innovators. Contributions are reviewed before they go live — sourced corrections are applied to the underlying data, improving it over time.
Data as of Compiled May 2026; USAFacts FY2023 · high confidence
Sources · Data as of Compiled May 2026; USAFacts FY2023 · high confidence
The Civic Infrastructure Diagnostic Framework’s structural elements — the four cluster labels, the six capacity dimensions, and the binding-constraint framing — are licensed under CC BY 4.0. Anyone may use or adapt them with attribution. Tool implementation and full article text © 2026 JTV Advisory LLC.