Guinn offers glimpse at $3.7 billion state budget

Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2000 | 11:12 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Foster parents may be getting more money, there will probably be pay raises for state workers and university faculty but not for schoolteachers and there will be renovations in the state park system.

These are some of the things Gov. Kenny Guinn intends to include in his $3.7 billion, two-year budget he will present to the Nevada Legislature Jan. 22.

Guinn briefed about 10 top legislators Monday on the financial picture of the state and later talked with reporters, stressing his budget will not have any new taxes.

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, and Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, both called it a good meeting.

"We talked in generalities...we didn't talk much in specifics," Perkins said.

During his meeting with reporters, Guinn said the state now has a chance to save $3 million to $5 million a year by providing its own workers compensation insurance and bailing out of the Employers Insurance Co. of Nevada, a former state agency that is now a private company.

The governor is planning to increase by "quite a few millions of dollars" health and welfare programs. For instance, he said wants to pay foster parents more than the $12 a day they now receive. And he wants to pay grandparents who take care of children.

The budget will include money to advertise and promote Check-Up, a low-cost insurance program for children of the working poor. There are 14,700 children enrolled in Check-Up and Guinn would like to see 20,000 to 25,000.

Initial sign-ups for the senior citizen prescription drug program for the first month totaled only 300 persons, but the governor expects that pace to increase.

He said a legislative study committee's recommendation to overhaul part of the child-welfare system is a good idea. It would cost about $18 million over the biennium.

Buckley said the governor "spoke supportively" of the idea, which calls for raising grants to foster parents from $12 to $20 a day, providing mental health treatment for abused children, lowering the number of cases a worker will handle and letting Clark and Washoe take over the child-welfare systems in those two counties from the state.

After health and welfare, Guinn said salaries for state workers and university faculty is second on the list. And if any money can be re-allocated from the budget, he would consider putting it to raises for schoolteachers.

Democrats say all three groups need pay raises. Guinn said schoolteachers can bargain collectively over their salaries with districts. But state workers and university faculty don't enjoy collective bargaining. He also noted the teachers are pushing a 4 percent business tax plan to put more money in education, including salaries.

Buckley said more money is needed to attract the best teachers. "We're just talking about a cost-of-living raise," she said. "He realizes raises need to be given teachers, but it's not in the budget. I'm hoping to work together to give them salary increases."

She also said while schoolteachers have collective bargaining, the school districts don't have any money to allocate for that purpose.

Perkins said, "Everybody needs a salary increase. It's getting much more difficult to provide a livable salary."

There will be an expected surplus of $200 million for one-shot items, the governor said. He wants to put $50 million each in education, health, buildings and construction, parks and technology.

Cities and counties have well maintained parks, Guinn said, noting that Floyd Lamb State Park too should be improved so there are facilities there that will draw people.

The governor also intends to put $13 million to create an actuarial fund to pay for retirement of judges. At present, the money comes out of the state's general fund every year for pensions. But the $13 million could draw interest and would save the state $45 million over a 40-year period.

Guinn plans to put some programs into the state budget for ongoing appropriations instead of the groups, which include Holocaust education and a bus program that takes computers to schools coming back every two years and asking for one-shot money.

The governor wants to make it easier for women who get pregnant while on Medicaid to re-enter the program instead of sitting out a waiting period.

Buckley said the Democrats proposed using one-shot money to build nursing homes in Southern and Northern Nevada for senior citizens. In Southern Nevada, she said BLM has land available. These would be pilot projects with a nonprofit group operating them. Nursing homes now cost a person $3,000 to $4,000 a month.

"He (Guinn) seemed favorable to this," she said.

The governor said "nothing in this budget will include new taxes." The proposed budget will be 17 percent higher than the present two-year spending program.

Guinn also would oppose any increase in fees imposed by government agencies.