Monday, June 9, 2003 | 11:14 a.m.
Gov. Kenny Guinn's office has downplayed the threat of a state government shutdown, but some local and state officials are still thinking about what such a shutdown might mean.
Guinn has scheduled a Cabinet meeting for early this week to discuss contingency plans to deal with a shutdown, which could come July 1 if the Legislature still has not passed a funding formula for the two-year, $5 billion general fund budget.
A state-government shutdown has never happened in Nevada history, nor has the state ever required a stopgap resolution to provide continued funding, though it has come close, Lorne Malkiewich, Legislative Counsel Bureau director, said.
Greg Bortolin, Guinn's spokesman, said a shutdown is unlikely.
"That's not going to happen ... unless something wacky happens," he said. "Cooler heads will prevail."
The Legislature has been stalled in discussions over a tax plan to fund the state budget. Lawmakers have been unable to come to an agreement, and a special session called by the governor has been recessed until Tuesday.
The impact of a shutdown on state and local services would largely be determined by the governor and the Legislature, which could pass temporary legislation to keep the wheels of the government rolling. Most people agree that the state's essential and emergency services will not be shut down -- Nevada Highway Patrol officers will continue to prowl the highways, and prisoners in the state system will still get fed.
Nonetheless, the scale of the impact and uncertainty about what programs would be affected has some local officials worried.
"The implications could be pretty severe depending on what stops," Clark County spokesman Erik Pappa said. "At this stage, it's all highly speculative.
"We depend on the state for collecting and distributing certain revenues," he said. Besides, if the state stops providing services, the public may expect the county to step in, he added.
"State prisoners and mental health patients probably wouldn't be let go by the state, but do they stop checking up on foster children?" Pappa asked. "Is it possible that the state could refuse to take any more prisoners? Those that are sentenced to state facilities but are still housed in county facilities may be left at those county facilities.
"Would the county have to assume those costs?"
The impact could flow through many local government functions, Pappa said.
"There are a lot of little programs within the various state departments that could have an effect on the county if they were shut down," he said, such as probation reports on convicted criminals, now a state function, rulings on water use from the state engineer, rent subsidies or, significantly, Medicaid payments to the county's University Medical Center.
Pappa said the county is "still optimistic" that the budget mess can be resolved.
Kevin Malone, a spokesman for the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles, agreed that a shutdown is not likely. But if a shutdown did affect his department, many of the 5,000 people who seek car registration and driver's licenses every day would be out of luck.
"There would be people driving around out there illegally," he said.
With the loss of those services, revenue for local governments would be at least delayed, he said. License and registration fees, plus fuel taxes also collected by the department, garner about $850 million a year for local governments.
The Clark County School District is the local agency almost totally dependent on revenue passing through the state's hands. Walt Rulffes, deputy superintendent and chief financial officer, said the school system would not have to shut down summer classes and administrative functions.
"It would be unlikely that school districts would have to shut down," he said, in part because the systems have reserve funds to sustain summer operations.
The decision, however, would have to come from the state's education leaders and the governor's office, with consideration of the legislative situation.
"We just don't know what options are out there yet," Rulffes said.
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