Friday won’t be holiday for state

Wednesday, June 9, 2004 | 9:33 a.m.

SUN CAPITAL BUREAU

CARSON CITY -- While Friday has been declared a national day of mourning in honor of the late President Ronald Reagan, there won't be any holiday for state workers.

Federal offices will be closed, but a spokesman for Gov. Kenny Guinn said the governor does not have the authority to declare a state holiday.

However, at 9:30 a.m. Friday there will be a memorial remembrance for the late president around the flagpole at Las Vegas City Hall, 400 E. Stewart Ave.

The 1987 Legislature gave state workers two extra holidays but took the authority away from the governor to declare any additional holidays.

Greg Bortolin, press secretary for Guinn, said a holiday costs the state $1 million in overtime and other items.

Several times in the past 50 years state workers received a holiday at the death of a president. They received a day off when President Kennedy was assassinated. Gov. Paul Laxalt declared a half-day holiday at the death of President Eisenhower; Gov. Mike O'Callaghan proclaimed a holiday when President Truman died but did not give one when President Lyndon Johnson died within the following 30 days.

There were no state holidays when Presidents Hoover and Nixon died, Bortolin said.