State’s emergency fund has taken a beating

Wednesday, Sept. 22, 1999 | 11:43 a.m.

Fires, floods and other emergencies have taken a $3.5 million bite out of the state's $8 million contingency fund, leaving $4.5 million to deal with emergencies over the next 21 months.

However, most of the funds allocated by the Legislature's Interim Finance Committee in Carson City Tuesday was related to fighting fires in Northern Nevada.

Officials say most of those funds, about $3 million, will be recouped from the federal government in the months ahead.

"Before yesterday's meeting the forest fire reimbursement request was $2.5 million. But by the time the committee met it was $3 million and it could increase by another $1.4 million by the end of the year," Lorne Malkiewich, director of the committee's Administrative Division, said this morning.

A cloud-seeding program operated by Desert Research Institute was cut back from $498,000 last year to $495,000.

Malkiewich said the need for the program was questioned, but the funding was approved after it was pointed out that dry ground was fueling the fires and the cloud seeding would help start new growth, thus reducing the fire hazard next year.

The committee heard requests for $5 million in emergency funds Tuesday.

"That certainly got our attention," Malkiewich said.

If the fund were to be depleted, an emergency meeting of the Legislature could be called to replenish it, but Malkiewich said that has never happened.

Rather, he said, there are other ways of shifting funds to meet needs.

A number of requests were pared down or shifted to allow funding from other sources, such as $1.5 million in "stale claims" -- bills from last year -- to be paid through regular budget channels instead of from the contingency fund.

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