Nevada to get least per capita from federal aid program

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, May 29, 2003 | 11:18 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Nevada will receive the least amount of federal money per capita from the aid program that was included in the tax cut legislation signed by President Bush on Wednesday. That's mostly because the state has a relatively small Medicaid population, officials said.

The $350 billion tax cut legislation set aside $20 billion for states, the U.S. territories and Washington, D.C. About half of the total is for Medicaid assistance.

Nevada will receive $96.7 million, with $28.8 million for Medicaid, according to the House Ways and Means Committee. The figures are preliminary, a panel spokeswoman said today.

Nevada's take is equivalent to about $44.50 per person on average, putting the state last in a per-capita ranking compiled by Gannett News Service. The District of Columbia fared best in the per-capita ranking: $165.49 per person average.

Congressional budget officials doled out money in two allocations. The first was for flexible block grants, which was allocated based on population.

The Medicaid money each state received was a 2.95 percent increase in what the states spend in a year on Medicaid.

Nevada last year spent roughly $800 million on Medicaid for about 167,000 recipients. Nevada's Medicaid population is smaller than most states, said Charles Duarte, Medicaid administrator for Nevada.

"Our program is relatively lean," Duarte said. "We don't spend a lot of money on Medicaid in the state relative to other states."

Nevada was the 35th state in terms of population in the 2000 census, but it ranks toward the bottom among states in Medicaid payouts.

"It's hardly surprising we are down as low as we are," said Greg Bortolin, spokesman for Gov. Kenny Guinn.

Of the 50 states, only five states will receive less money than Nevada for Medicaid as part of the $20 billion program -- Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.

"This is another glaring example of what the governor is talking about when he says there is no fat left to cut" in the state budget, Bortolin said.