Editorial: Budget crisis now affects public safety

Friday, Dec. 20, 2002 | 3:32 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: Dec. 22, 2002

On Oct. 1 Gov. Kenny Guinn signed an order consistent with what he has been saying for the past year, that state revenues are insufficient to meet public needs. He ordered all state departments to cut their budgets by 3 percent, a stop-gap measure that may stabilize state finances until the 2003 Legislature acts on proposed new taxes. The effects of the 3 percent cuts are now beginning to show. The state Parole and Probation Division reported Friday that since Guinn's order it hasn't been able to afford escorts for parole violators who surface in other states. The division says about 2,900 warrants are out for parole violators, but they will be allowed to go free if they are caught out of state and are judged "on a case-by-case basis" to be not terribly violent or prone to sexual predation. In the past, the division has sent an officer to escort the viol ator back to Nevada.

We hope division officials huddle with state prisons director Jackie Crawford, and that together they brief legislators on this obvious threat to public safety. Even before cutting the parolee-return program, the division had been forced to end housing loans and other assistance to their clients. That alone has a huge public impact, because without assistance the potential for parolees to commit other crimes or become homeless is increased. And the cuts are directly affecting more than parolees -- a cutback in staff has slowed the processing of restitution checks to crime victims. It's awful that Nevada must jeopardize or underserve the public. The need for new taxes is becoming clearer every day.