9 Things Nevadans Miss Most After They Move Away
A Nevadan who packs up for almost any other state gets a jolt on their first paycheck: An extra line for state income tax.
That’s just one of many things that Nevadans miss most after they move away.
1. Public Land Nobody Fences
More than 80 percent of Nevada’s land belongs to the federal government, the highest share of any state in the country.
That’s more than 56 million acres of open desert, mountains, and back roads sitting right outside town.
Nobody asks for a ticket.
You can disappear into any of it for an afternoon without a plan or a permit.
You’ll feel the difference the moment you move somewhere the land mostly sits behind a fence, public or private.
2. Legal Cannabis, No Card Required
January 1, 2017 is the day cannabis became legal in Nevada for any adult 21 or older, under what voters approved as the Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act.
You don’t need a medical card or a doctor’s note to buy it.
A valid ID at a licensed dispensary is the whole requirement, the same as buying a bottle of wine.
More recently, the state started licensing consumption lounges too, dedicated spaces where you can legally light up or vape on-site instead of stepping outside or doing it at home.
It’s just a normal errand.
Many other states still treat that same errand as illegal or limited to registered medical patients only.
3. No State Income Tax
Your Nevada paycheck skips a line that shows up almost everywhere else: State income tax.
Nevada is one of only nine states that never touch a paycheck with a personal income tax.
That adds up fast.
No sunset clause exists on that.
Nevada has run this way for generations, funding its budget through sales tax and a cut of casino revenue instead of a paycheck deduction.
Move to almost any other state, and you start losing a slice of every check to a line that used to not exist for you.
Nobody warns you how much that adds up to until your first tax season away from Nevada comes due.
What Nevada’s Missing Tax Line Saves You
Nevada’s missing income tax line changes an actual number on your paycheck, not just a talking point.
Picture earning $60,000 a year in a state with a flat five percent income tax: You’d hand over about $3,000 of it every year.
Stay in that state for a decade, and the tax line alone adds up to roughly $30,000 gone from your paychecks that a Nevada worker never lost.
That’s the trade Nevada asks you to make at the register instead of on your pay stub.
4. Property Tax Bill That Barely Moves
A Nevada homeowner’s property tax bill can’t legally jump by more than 3 percent in a single year on a primary residence, under a cap written into state law.
Nevada’s effective property tax rate averages just 0.44 percent of a home’s value, one of the lowest rates in the country, according to the Tax Foundation.
You can watch your home’s market value rise for years and still open a tax bill that barely moved.
The cap does the work.
A homeowner in a state without that cap watches the bill rise however fast the market decides, with no 3 percent ceiling to stop it.
5. Slot Machines at the Corner Store
Walk into an ordinary convenience store, gas station, or neighborhood tavern, and you’re standing in a tiny casino too.
It runs under what the state calls a restricted gaming license.
State gaming regulators cap a plain convenience store at seven slot machines and a liquor store at four.
The whole restricted license tops out at 15 machines for any single location.
A local chain called Dotty’s built its whole business on that loophole, running dozens of small storefronts that look like an ordinary strip-mall shop from outside.
Step inside, and each one opens into a hushed, homey tavern with a full bar and a short food menu.
Grab a gallon of milk at one, and you can end up spending two minutes at the video poker machine by the register instead.
Nobody blinks.
You won’t find that machine by the register almost anywhere else in the country.
6. Bar That Never Says Last Call
Nevada sets no statewide closing time on alcohol sales at all.
No last call exists.
A bar, liquor store, or casino in Las Vegas or Reno can legally sell you a drink at any hour of any day.
Cross into neighboring Utah, and bar service cuts off at 1 a.m.
Bars and liquor stores just keep pouring, any hour you show up.
A 3 a.m. run for a six-pack is a normal Tuesday here, not a fluke.
Many other states hand you a hard stop somewhere between midnight and 2 a.m., whether you’re ready for the night to end or not.
7. Skiing an Hour From the Strip
You can float in a Las Vegas hotel pool at noon and stand on a ski lift in the mountains by early afternoon.
Lee Canyon‘s ski resort sits less than an hour from the Las Vegas Strip, up the Mount Charleston Scenic Byway.
Desert heat turns to mountain snow in the length of one playlist.
Not many places manage that.
Move somewhere without a desert-to-snowline drive that short, and a ski trip turns back into a whole vacation again.
8. Skies Dark Enough for the Milky Way
Step outside on a clear night in rural Nevada, and the Milky Way shows up as an actual band of light.
Nevada’s Great Basin National Park earned an International Dark Sky Park designation in 2016, thanks to some of the least light-polluted skies left in the lower 48 states.
That dark is rare now.
You won’t find that kind of dark in almost any city, or in many suburbs, where the sky flattens into a handful of stars and a lot of orange glow.
Psst! How much do you know about Nevada’s history and oddities? Take our quiz and see how many you can get right.
Quiz
Nevada IQ
Answer these questions on Nevada’s history, symbols, and oddities. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
Nevada renamed State Route 375 in 1996 because of its closeness to a secretive military site. What’s the road’s official nickname?
9. Air Drier Than Anywhere Else
You'll feel Nevada's air before you check a chart: It's the driest state in the country, averaging just 10.2 inches of precipitation statewide a year, according to climate data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
That dry air carries a signature smell that shows up right after a rare desert rain, when creosote bushes release the oils scientists call petrichor.
You'll go through a lot of lotion and lip balm just keeping up with it day to day.
Humid air stops feeling normal.
Humidity above 40 percent will start to feel strange instead of ordinary after enough years breathing Nevada's dry air.
You'll spend your first sticky summer somewhere else relearning what regular air is even supposed to feel like.
