Sluggish economy limits county budget

Adrienne Packer

Tuesday, May 22, 2001 | 10:28 a.m.

A soft economy combined with the uncertainty of proposed legislation has led to Clark County's leanest budget in years.

During a brief public hearing held Monday to discuss the budget for the 2001-02 fiscal year, Finance Director George Stevens told county commissioners it has been four years since his staff has produced such a conservative financial plan.

The county's general fund budget is about $734 million, up about 4 percent from the past fiscal year. Its overall budget is $3.2 billion.

Because of healthy sales tax revenues, said Stevens, the general fund's growth rate has increased by as much as 10 percent.

During each of the past four years the county has hired between 50 and 100 new employees under the general fund budget, which is composed of tax revenues and used to provide services to the community. This year only 13 new workers will be hired and paid from the general fund.

County revenues have slowed because the economy is forcing residents to be frugal and because no new resorts have opened on the Las Vegas Strip, Stevens said.

New resorts not only bring in additional room taxes, but the flood of tourists leads to increased sales tax revenues.

"People are paying higher fuel prices and utilities, so they don't have as large of a discretionary income," said Stevens, referring to tourists' inability to travel and residents' reluctance to splurge.

Earlier this year administrators prohibited department heads from filling vacant positions.

Of the 13 new full-time positions approved by the commission, 12 are designated for Family and Youth Services' new Child Haven cottage. The 13th position is for a forensic pathology technician in the coroner's office. The new jobs will cost the county about $619,000 annually.

Thirty-one positions were approved from the non-general fund -- departments that generate their own resources. The airport received permission for the most new employees -- 20. Those positions amount to about $1.7 million a year.

Stevens said other department heads were told not to make requests.

"We didn't let departments ask this year," Stevens said. "We knew we were going to have problems because we knew we couldn't even meet requests last year. We didn't want them to go through the effort of requesting this year."

Meanwhile, Stevens said, the county continues to grow at a steady pace, although its ability to provide quality services is becoming more difficult because of the general fund's minimal growth.

Because the bulk of the general fund is spent on public safety, police and fire services will take the hardest hits this year.

Sheriff Jerry Keller's request for 150 new officers was whittled to 100.

The county's plan to build 10 new fire stations in the next decade could also be delayed. Commissioners hoped to build one new fire station each year, but the budget forces them to put off plans for the next facility, which was to be built in the southwest.

"We don't have the money in here to staff the next one,' Stevens said.

Commissioners said lower tax revenues and proposed legislation that threatens to take millions from local governments, shifting the money to the state and the school system, is cause for concern, but not panic.

"Anytime you don't hire the required number of employees to keep up with the demand for services, it's always a cause for concern," Commission Chairman Dario Herrera said. "This won't affect the services we can provide; we just have to operate meaner and leaner."

The bill that poses the greatest threat is a proposal to take local governments' share of motor vehicle privilege taxes and shift them to the school system for two years. The county anticipates its losses would be $36 million. The other bill would strip governments of property tax revenues.

Herrera and Stevens said if neither bill passes the county will take another look at the budget and reallocate positions to police, fire or the parks and recreation division, which needs to staff new community centers.

"If none of the bills goes through, we will remain cautious, because the economy is softening and the revenues coming in are not as large as they have been in the last few years," Herrera said.

"One message this budget clearly shows legislators is that the county isn't the liberal spender everyone makes us out to be."