Prison budget error adds to financial woes

Tuesday, April 24, 2001 | 10:15 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- There is more gloomy budget news for the Nevada Legislature, which already faces a deficit of up to $140 million over the next two fiscal years.

The Senate Finance Committee was told Monday that state prison officials had failed to include money for an estimated 177 inmates over the next two years. That means a shortfall of $648,902.

The prison relies on an outside expert, James Austin, to make its projections regarding the inmate population. But Finance Committee staff members said the prison failed to include the latest estimates in the budget.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said today that finance staff members had discovered the calculation early, and committee staff members are trying to find ways for savings in the prison budget to make up for the shortage.

"We are at the point where we seriously have to start talking about budget cuts," said Raggio, chairman of the Finance Committee.

The Economic Forum, a committee of five financial experts, meets May 1 to make its predictions of tax revenue for the next two years. The numbers that the forum decides on must be used in building the state's budget.

So far this fiscal year sales and gaming tax collections are below what was predicted.

Legislative fiscal analysts have predicted there might have to be reductions of $141 million.