Counties seek vote on unfunded mandates

Tuesday, April 6, 2004 | 9:53 a.m.

SUN CAPITAL BUREAU

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Association of Counties is asking all 17 counties to place an advisory question on their November election ballots that would call for the state to stop passing unfunded mandates to the counties.

The ballot question would ask whether the Nevada Constitution should be amended to prevent the state from adopting policies and then making local governments pay the bills for those policies.

The latest example, the association said, is the 2003 law to require counties to pay health insurance subsidies for retired county employees. The state pays a subsidy for health insurance for its employees.

Many county employees, when they retire, join the state health coverage. But the premiums have been rising and they get no help from local government.

Humboldt County Commissioner John H. Milton III, president of the association, said it doesn't question the policy decision to provide the subsidy but takes issue with the state's failure to provide any money for this program.

The association said the state has also placed additional burdens on the counties by passing on-the-job health coverage benefits for police and firefighters without providing funding for them.

The association says the Legislature is circumventing the 1993 unfunded mandate law with its new requirements.