Brian Sandoval speaks during a memorial service in Reno, NV. Nevada’s Republican governor, Brian Sandoval, secured an unlikely victory, Monday, June 1, 2015, when the conservative state Legislature approved a huge tax increase at his urging as part of a plan to boost education spending. The $1.1 billion package raises taxes on businesses and cigarettes, and it makes permanent a $500 million bundle of temporary payroll and sales taxes.