County’s budget workshop provides grim predictions

Wednesday, April 2, 2003 | 9:42 a.m.

Clark County government revenues and services are not keeping up with a constantly growing county population, county staff members told their political bosses Tuesday.

As part of a two-hour budget workshop, county Finance Director George Stevens presented the gloomy facts to the County Commission: Absent an economic upturn that will lift all boats, they will have to cut services.

State law requires the county to keep its books balanced. This year's budget was about $820 million and next year's is expected to swell to $873 million, he told the county commissioners.

That would include funding for more than 800 new positions, Stevens told the commission.

Revenue from sales, property and other taxes and fees will continue to grow, he predicted, but not as fast as the population. The county's population has nearly doubled every 15 years for decades.

Total per capita expenditures, in inflation-adjusted dollars, have fallen from $728 in 1991 to $709 this year, Stevens said. He predicted flat revenue growth of about 2 percent annually for most of the rest of this decade, well below the 6 percent annual growth rate that Southern Nevada has had for years.

One piece of good news: Stevens said the pace of population growth will likely drop to about 4 percent.

"We will continue to grow but at a less rapid rate," he said. "A lot of that is just because the base is bigger."

Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates predicted trouble for the already cash-strapped county if the trend continues.

"We're headed to disaster if our demands are constantly increasing and our revenue is flat," she said. "Obviously, our revenue is not going to keep up with the demands of the community."

"Yeah, it could potentially be a train wreck," Stevens said.

In the short term the answer is to do more with less, squeezing the administrative costs of running the county, he said.

"Over time, though, your ability to continue to do that, to free up resources for other departments, is diminished," Stevens said.

Assistant County Manager Rick Holmes said the county will look for ways to trim budgets. But in the end priorities will have to be set by the commissioners, he said.

"We really need to address the programs that exist out there, the services the county delivers," Holmes said, noting that many of those services are mandated by state and federal law. "That will be a major challenge over the next several months."