The Nevada Piglet Book 2010

Executive Summary

Transparency in government increases accountability and reduces the potential for governmental corruption. That in turn can foster greater taxpayer confidence in elected officials. For this reason, the Nevada Policy Research Institute is committed to making Nevada state and local government information available, in user-friendly formats, to the people of the Silver State.

To accomplish this, NPRI annually makes hundreds of public records requests to state and local government agencies across Nevada. Much of the information received in response to these requests is made available as a free public service on TransparentNevada.com, NPRI's transparency website.

In the course of such work, many instances of government waste come to light. Indeed, notwithstanding Nevada's severely depressed economy and worst-in-the-nation unemployment, state and local governments routinely continue abuses NPRI documented two years ago, in the 2008 Nevada Piglet Book.

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Geoffrey Lawrence

Geoffrey Lawrence

Director of Research

Geoffrey Lawrence is director of research at Nevada Policy.

Lawrence has broad experience as a financial executive in the public and private sectors and as a think tank analyst. Lawrence has been Chief Financial Officer of several growth-stage and publicly traded manufacturing companies and managed all financial reporting, internal control, and external compliance efforts with regulatory agencies including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.  Lawrence has also served as the senior appointee to the Nevada State Controller’s Office, where he oversaw the state’s external financial reporting, covering nearly $10 billion in annual transactions. During each year of Lawrence’s tenure, the state received the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting Award from the Government Finance Officers’ Association.

From 2008 to 2014, Lawrence was director of research and legislative affairs at Nevada Policy and helped the institute develop its platform of ideas to advance and defend a free society.  Lawrence has also written for the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation, with particular expertise in state budgets and labor economics.  He was delighted at the opportunity to return to Nevada Policy in 2022 while concurrently serving as research director at the Reason Foundation.

Lawrence holds an M.A. in international economics from American University in Washington, D.C., an M.S. and a B.S. in accounting from Western Governors University, and a B.A. in international relations from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.  He lives in Las Vegas with his beautiful wife, Jenna, and their two kids, Carson Hayek and Sage Aynne.