The law that wants to allow tech companies to create autonomous governments in Nevada

The Democratic governor of the US state wants companies with a capital of at least $ 250 million to be autonomous in managing taxation, schools, courts and public services, creating new "Innovation Zones"

(photo: Nicola Tolin / Unsplash) To attract large digital companies, Nevada Governor, Democrat Steve Sisolak, presented a bill that would authorize businesses to create autonomous local governments, with the same administrative competence and authority as a normal province.

The state of Nevada is one of the largest and least populated in the United States. With an area of ​​over 280 thousand square kilometers, it is almost as large as Italy, but has the same population as the urban area of ​​Rome alone, that is, about 3 million inhabitants. In 2018, billionaire Jeffrey Berns, owner of the cryptocurrency firm Blockchains, bought 270 square kilometers of uninhabited and undeveloped land in Storey County, Nevada. Since then, Berns has been one of the largest campaign sponsors for candidates for governor in the state. In 2018 he donated $ 10,000 to both the current Democratic governor and his Republican challenger Adam Laxalt, while in 2019 he paid about $ 50,000 to the State Democratic Party and made various donations to various legislators on both sides of the political spectrum.

An eloquent coincidence, given that last week the governor of Nevada presented a draft of a new bill, previewed by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, according to which the traditional form of local government, that envisaged by democratic institutions, would be "inadequate to provide the flexibility and resources necessary to put the state in the best conditions to attract new forms of business and promote the economic development of new technologies and innovative companies", underlining how "alternative forms of government local "are necessary for the economic development of the state.

The requirements to participate in the Innovation Zones

The project, called Innovation Zones, would therefore be limited to companies active in the digital sector, in cryptocurrencies , robotics, artificial intelligence and other sectors related to information technology and new technologies. In order to found new local governments, companies must own land of at least 202 square kilometers, uninhabited, undeveloped and located within a single region, but separated from any city or settlement. In addition, affected businesses must have capital of at least $ 250 million and an investment plan in the area of ​​at least $ 1 billion over ten years.

Affected areas would initially remain under the supervision of the counties in which they find, but with the expectation of becoming independent government bodies and assuming responsibility for the administrative and legal responsibilities of the area. According to the bill, the new governments will be autonomous in imposing and collecting taxes, creating school districts, their own courts and guaranteeing public services. Instead of having elected government officials, the new governments will be run by a council made up of three "supervisors", under the control of the enterprise that owns the new local administrative entity.

According to Governor Sisolak, the state would succeed thus to attract new companies without having to invest public funds to support their establishment, and to enrich themselves through the imposition of a new ad hoc tax "on innovative technologies or on activities related to innovative technologies." . The danger, however, is to see institutionalized a precedent that makes legal the replacement of a public administration with a private one, de facto disconnected from the democratic decision-making process.