Governor: Nevada senior citizens can keep extra rebate check

Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2005 | 8:08 a.m.

CARSON CITY - First, some Nevadans complained about not getting a rebate check from the state.

Now, more than 1,100 Nevada senior citizens have called to complain they received a second $75 rebate they did not deserve.

Under Gov. Kenny Guinn's $300 million rebate due to surplus tax revenues, a final round of checks went out last week to more than 77,000 people over age 65 with driver's licenses but no vehicles.

The only catch is that some of those elderly Nevadans had already received rebates for having a vehicle.

"I called a couple of my friends and we all got checks for having the car. Then we got another check for being a senior without a car," Gerri Murphy of Carson City told the Nevada Appeal.

"I'm not going to cash it. You've got to be honest," Murphy said.

But Guinn has decided that seniors should keep the checks, saying it would create more problems if they were returned.

"The intention of the governor was to get checks into the hands of as many people as possible, so they're welcome to keep the check," said Department of Motor Vehicles spokesman Tom Jacobs. "The governor is confident everybody who got the check deserves it."

Lois Berrington, 74, of Reno, said she still thinks it's wrong to receive a double rebate. She went to a DMV office and demanded they take back the check.

"She looked at me like I was cuckoo," Berrington told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "I was in the military and if they overpaid you they expected to be paid back."

All seniors with a driver's license who didn't get a rebate of 2004 motor vehicle fees were issued checks last week.

But Jacobs said the system didn't recognize such irregularities as different first name spellings and that some cars are registered under family trusts.

"We expected glitches because the computer system wasn't designed to do this," he said.

Mary Santomauro of Silver Springs said she marked her second check "void" and returned it.

"It appears as though our senior citizens in Nevada operate from a very high level of integrity," Jacobs said.