Raise starts for state’s employees

Friday, June 30, 2000 | 10:22 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- State government opens a new fiscal year Saturday by giving a 2 percent cost-of-living raise to its more than 15,500 employees.

The start of the fiscal year also means that $1.6 billion will start flowing from the treasury to support education, health, welfare and other state programs. Added to that is nearly $5 billion in federal funds, fee collections, fines and other money that the state will be able to spend in the next 12 months.

And a handful of laws, most of them technical, become effective.

For instance, there will be increased penalties for those late in paying their premiums for unemployment coverage to the state. There will be a $25 charge for a bad check. And the interest rate for delinquent payments rises from one-half of 1 percent to 1 percent per month.

School districts will be allowed to give higher pay to teachers who have experience in other districts. Their teaching experience outside Nevada may be considered in setting their salaries. It applies only to teachers hired after Saturday.

Insurance companies will be required now to show on their bills the amount of the payment going to state taxes.

State employees didn't get a cost-of-living raise last year, but the Legislature found enough money to allow 2 percent this year. The State of Nevada Employees Association, the largest union of state workers, is asking for a 5 percent raise next year.

The $1.6 billion state general fund budget for the coming fiscal year is a 4.6 percent increase over the present 12 month period.

It calls for spending 54.7 percent of the total on public schools and the University and Community College System of Nevada; 24.5 percent on human services such as welfare, health and children's programs; 11.6 percent on public safety with most of it going to support the prison system; 3.4 percent on the constitutional agencies -- which are the elected officials and Supreme Court; and 1.8 percent on finance and administration.

During the fiscal year, the state will add 312 new employees, most of them in public safety, with the opening of the High Desert State Prison in Southern Nevada.