Sources say politics drove Lombardo’s rush to roll out new system

On January 31, 2025, the Nevada Independent reported new and troubling details about how the new state finance system that Joe Lombardo bragged about in his State of the State address earlier this month has been suffering from significant issues after Lombardo scrapped the old system and pushed for this new version to go live before his speech. 

The article detailed how, according to a state whistleblower, Lombardo pushed up the launch date of his new system, “so that he can talk at the State of the State and say, ‘Look what I did in two years.’”

The harm done by Lombardo rushing his new and failing system includes state employees not getting their paychecks or getting paid late, health savings account payments not going out and forcing people to pay medical expenses out of pocket, as well as problems processing state employee retention bonuses. This comes after $160 million was spent on Lombardo’s new system, despite how the original price tag was supposed to be just $50 million. 

To add insult to injury, another state whistleblower detailed how the new system has made work more difficult and that training on it has been insufficient. According to them, “we were all just sort of told to sink or swim, and most of us went underwater several times.”

Commenting on Lombardo’s politically rushed, over-budget, and failing new finance system, that last whistleblower summed up the situation best, saying: “I don’t really have anything positive to say about it.”

Read more below: 

The Nevada Independent: Lombardo praised Nevada’s new finance system. The switch has been plagued by glitches.

1/31/25

Key points: 

• Gov. Joe Lombardo was bullish about the rollout of a multimillion-dollar effort to modernize the state’s finance systems, giving it top billing in his State of the State address earlier this month. “Now, Nevada is paying its bills,” Lombardo said, heralding it as a shift from a money-draining project he called off early in his term. The reality has been far bumpier.

• Since switching over to the new system in early January, the state has at times been unable to distribute certain child support, pension and health savings account payments. The new system has also struggled to pay certain vendors and caused glitches in budget account interfaces for state finance employees, according to interviews with state employees and memos from project leaders obtained by The Nevada Independent.

• Lombardo’s administration set forth an ambitious timeline to roll out the project - called CORE.NV - by calling for a “minimum viable product” of the new finance system to go live on Jan. 1, 2025, and proposing to launch the HR system in summer 2025. “I’m very angry and very upset for the people who have not gotten their paychecks,” said “Sam,” a state employee who was granted a pseudonym because they were not authorized to discuss the issues. “I told everyone two years ago … ‘I said [Lombardo’s] pushing the date of Jan. 2, 2025, so that he can talk at the State of the State and say, ‘Look what I did in two years.”

• The errors come less than a month into the initial release of the massive project to revamp the state’s finance and human resources systems. […] The state spent $80 million, but the SMART 21 project collapsed after years of poor leadership, minimal staffing and training and tension between agency employees and the lead contractor on the project, The Indy reported. Lombardo pulled the plug on the project three months after taking office, but despite the myriad issues, several state employees who worked on the project questioned the governor’s decision to scrap the project because major components were set to go live within months. […] State legislators subsequently appropriated more than $160 million for the new effort. The original price tag on the project was $50 million.

• News of payment issues came to light last week when project leaders sent a memo to state employees that there were issues with reprinting checks directly made out to employees’ beneficiaries, payments to vendors and disbursements related to child support, pensions and health savings accounts. “We understand the urgency of these payments and are actively working to resolve the interface as quickly as possible,” the memo said.

• Sam told The Indy that as of Thursday, they had not received their latest health savings account payments, which is money taken out of their paycheck pre-tax to pay for health care costs. Without these funds, they will have to pay out of pocket. Sam also said one of their lowest-paid colleagues did not receive a paycheck for nearly two weeks - and it was not fixed until higher-ups got involved - though state officials said this was not because of the rollout, but rather because of the outdated HR system. “I have worked with a lot of dedicated individuals, and these people work hard for their paychecks. And a lot of them work paycheck to paycheck,” Sam said. “It’s anger for me that they could do this and then not stop everything they’re doing to get that check cut.”

• “Alex,” another state employee granted anonymity, told The Indy that they were alerted on Jan. 16 that they would not be paid the following day, as scheduled, because their timesheet had been rejected. Initially, they were told that the issue would be resolved in the coming days, but they had to wait 12 days before receiving their paycheck in the mail, rather than through direct deposit. Alex is planning to file a grievance with the Office of the Labor Commissioner.

• Behind the scenes, state employees who work in accounting said the rollout has made their work more difficult - and that training on how to use the system has been insufficient. […] Avery, who is a state finance employee, is more pessimistic. They said that it takes four times as long to enter information from documents than under the old system. “I don’t really have anything positive to say about it,” Avery said.