Highlights of the Nevada state budget

Tuesday, June 7, 2005 | 6:11 a.m.

Highlights of the nearly $6 billion state budget approved late Monday by Nevada lawmakers:

-TOTAL SPENDING: The state's coming two-year budget includes nearly $6 billion in general fund and highway fund spending plus an additional $8.85 billion in federal money. The total budget is approximately $15 billion. That's at least 15 percent higher than the current budget.

-HUMAN SERVICES: Mental health spending will be nearly $360 million over the coming two years. About $18.5 million of that will go toward increasing the number of mental health beds in the Las Vegas area from 131 to 217 and for more than 250 new positions to staff existing facilities and the new psychiatric hospital, which is set to open in May 2006.

The Welfare Division will get nearly $139 million over the next two years, $5.5 million less than was proposed by Gov. Kenny Guinn in his January executive budget. That funding includes $49 million to support Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and other programs.

Nevada Medicaid will get nearly $814 million and Nevada Check Up will have a budget of $22 million for the more than 30,000 enrollees that are expected by mid-2007.

-HIGHER EDUCATION: Excluding pay raises, $1.12 billion will go toward the Nevada System of Higher Education over the next two years. Nevada National Guard members will continue to get fee waivers and the Lou Ruvo Center for Alzheimer's Disease and Brain Aging will get 10 more workers.

-K-12 PUBLIC SCHOOLS: The Distributive School Account is about $1.55 billion in funding. Of that, $181 million, which reflects 4.6 percent growth for inflation, must be spent on textbooks and school supplies. The account puts per-pupil funding at a statewide average of $4,486 for the next fiscal year and $4,696 for the year after.

Aside from the $1.55 billion in DSA funding is a $100 million education remediation account proposed by Guinn in January. About $22 million of the fund will be used to fund all-day kindergarten in at-risk schools. Funding for class-size reduction goals amounts to an additional $264 million over the biennium.

-PUBLIC SAFETY: The Department of Public Safety will receive more than $210 million in state general and highway funds, while the Department of Corrections will have a budget of $423 million that will support 11,465 inmates in the coming fiscal year and 11,896 in the following year.

-PAY RAISES: State employees, teachers and university professors will get pay raises of 2 percent and then 4 percent over the next two years. State and university employees also will get an additional step in the pay scale if they are at the top possible step now. Law enforcement and correctional officers also will get a two-grade increase.

-CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS: A bill appropriating $82 million in state funds and an additional $321 million in bonding will fund new buildings at the University of Nevada's Reno and Las Vegas campuses, a Las Vegas readiness center for the Nevada National Guard and additional housing units at the High Desert State Prison, among many other projects.