Governor announces budget cuts

Thursday, Sept. 19, 2002 | 11:12 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The state will lay off workers, cut programs in mental health and other services and reduce state aid to Clark and Washoe counties in order to save $38 million this fiscal year, Gov. Kenny Guinn announced this morning.

The governor told a news conference that the budget shortfall for this fiscal year and the next is estimated at $293.8 million, and the cuts are needed to solve the crisis facing state government.

"Everybody should understand the sacrifices the state employees are making," he said.

There has been a hiring freeze on many positions for the last four years, and the latest rounds of cuts come on top of that, he said.

"For four years we have had flat budgeting," he said. Tax revenues have failed to come in as fast as predicted. "9-11 took the air out of our sails," Guinn said. "And TANF (welfare) and Medicaid skyrocketed."

Under Guinn's plan, 44 state workers will be laid off, most of them in corrections and human resources, Guinn said. However, the state prison will not cut back on guards, he said.

Those losing their jobs will be given an opportunity to fill vacant state positions that have not been frozen.

In mental health, the division will reduce payments to family members caring for people with developmental disabilities in their homes from $200 per month to $194.

In addition, 12 intermediate-care facility beds at the Desert Regional Center in Las Vegas, which handles mentally retarded patients, will be closed. The clients will be placed in community residential support programs.

The cuts will also cause a longer wait to get into mental health treatment programs.

Other cuts the state will make:

For instance in the Family to Family Connection program in the state Department of Human Resources, three employees volunteered to reduce their work week to 36 hours.

The governor said the Nevada Supreme Court and the Legislature were in the midst of preparing their plans to reduce their budgets by 3 percent. And he praised the University and Community College System of Nevada for slicing its proposed $370.5 million spending program by $11.1 million.

The public schools have been shielded from these cutbacks, Guinn said.

The $38 million in reductions are in addition to other actions the governor has taken or will take to cure the estimated $293.8 million shortfall.

The administration has already cut $47.4 million that was set aside for such things as purchases of cars, computers and equipment. Agencies won't get $11.9 million that was allocated to pay higher energy bills.

There was a higher than expected balance on June 30, 2001 that helped ease some of the shortfall. And Guinn plans to ask the 2003 Legislature to allocate $100 million from the $136 million "Rainy Day" fund.

By making these reductions, the state will lose $10.4 million in federal funds since there won't be money available in matching the government spending.

But the governor said the state should be able to make it through until the Legislature without making additional reductions.

Guinn said the state's constitutional officers joined in cutting their budgets, even though he had no authority to order it. In his own office, he is saving $128,168, most of it by not filling the Office of Science, Engineering and Technology, a job that has been vacant for at least five years.