Forum’s report answers spending questions

Kirsten Searer and Cy Ryan

Monday, May 2, 2005 | 9:49 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Legislators this afternoon were to find out exactly how much money the state can spend for the coming two years.

The Economic Forum today was to deliver its forecasts of state revenue at 1 p.m.

"This is where people start feeling very passionate for the issues they advocate for," Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, said prior to the announcement.

Already legislators have submitted almost $3 billion in new spending requests, though more than $1 billion of that comes from a proposal from Sen. Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas, to fund K-12 education at the national average.

And mental health care, which was virtually gutted in the early 1990s, is one of the major spending priorities for the Legislature this year.

On Friday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, a fiscal conservative, kept making motions to approve more money for mental health services.

Legislators are looking at a surplus that conservative estimates peg at more than $400 million, and about $1 billion more is likely to be projected for the next biennium than was budgeted in the current one. There's money to go around, but little consensus on how to spend it.

Leaders generally agree that they first have to plug holes in the state budget -- and there are many.

"The budget came over with so many holes, so many problems and so many amendments," said Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas.

First, legislators need to ship about $180 million in the Distributive School Account, which funds K-12 education.

The hole came after several accounting errors made by Clark and Washoe school districts and from the property tax cap instituted earlier this session.

This year's Medicaid budget needs another $36 million, plus another $30 million in the next biennium.

Then, said Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, "I think we have a couple of crises we need to deal with."

Tops on the list for most Southern Nevada legislators is money to fix the mental health crisis, which has backed up emergency rooms around the Las Vegas Valley.

And $18 million omnibus bill meant to fix the problem is now before the Ways and Means Committee.

That's on top of the mental health budget approved Friday by the joint subcommittee on human resources that includes Raggio and Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno. The budget includes almost 50 percent more money for mental health than was included in the last biennium.

Also in that committee, Raggio and other leaders have touted several million to deal with the state's growing autism problem. By spending about $4.5 million, legislators would provide programs to about 150 new families.

"It was clearly expressed by this committee that we want to put this on a priority list," said Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, who is the Senate chairwoman of the joint budget committee looking at human resources.

Leslie said she will push for several million to go to people with traumatic brain injuries and about $2 million for youth camps, money that Raggio also supported publicly.

Several legislators hope to replace money now funding programs such as elder protective services with more stable general fund money. That would total just more than $1.5 million.

"We know the tobacco settlement money is drying up so some of us feel this is a good year to do the right thing and replace that soft money with general fund money," Leslie said.

Lines blur even more from there.

For example, legislators have all vowed to save the cash-starved Millennium Scholarship, which offers $10,000 to any Nevada high school graduate with a B average or higher.

Gov. Kenny Guinn and legislative leaders announced a plan in February to give $32 million to the program. But Democrats in the Ways and Means Committee announced last week that they wanted to give $100 million and impose fewer restrictions than Guinn would.

Raggio said he wasn't willing to draw a line in the sand yet on the issue, but he was surprised by the announcement.

"Leadership had signed off on this solution," Raggio said. "I'm not sure what changed."

But Giunchigliani and Assembly Ways and Means Chairman Morse Arberry Jr., D-Las Vegas, both said they never signed off on the deal.

"I wasn't at that press conference," Arberry said.

When asked if Arberry thought the issue had been put to bed in February, he responded, "Well, we changed the sheets."

The two Democrats also introduced a measure to raise state employee salaries by 5 percent each of the two years of the biennium at a cost of at least $168 million. Studies show that state employees make an average 26 percent less than city and county employees.

The news was welcomed by state employees like Kevin Ranft, who works as a correctional officer at the High Desert State Prison.

Ranft and other public employees rallied outside of the Legislature Friday to ask for a study to look at health care costs.

Between the minimal cost of living increases he has received and the rising housing prices in Las Vegas, Ranft said he and his wife were thinking of moving away from Las Vegas.

"We can't afford a home, we can't afford child care and we can't afford health care," he said. "It's a true nightmare."

Ranft said he will top out at $45,000 in his position, but comparable positions in Clark County top out at $65,000.

Still, the idea and its huge price tag has been met with skepticism, even from Perkins.

"I think we should provide as strong of a pay raise for state employees as possible," Perkins said.

When asked if the five percent raises are feasible, he responded, "We'll find out on Monday."

Another major expenditure is full-day kindergarten, set to cost about $72 million in the next two years.

Perkins and Buckley put the idea as tops on their list, and their counterparts in the Senate haven't said yet whether they will nix the idea.

Assembly Education Chairwoman Bonnie Parnell, D-Carson City, said she hopes the state will at least provide full-day kindergarten to at-risk schools.

"I would like to think that we could end up at least with that so we could start to address the needs and really look at the success of full-day kindergarten," she said.

All of these big figures have led people to wonder if a rebate -- labeled a top priority by Guinn -- is still possible.

Guinn proposes to refund $300 million through a car registration rebate.

Some say it's a must.

"I would prefer, of course, to refund that back to the taxpayers," said Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, who said he expects legislators would have about $200 million in surplus money even after Guinn's $300 million rebate.

"I think we have been fairly abused during the last five years both at the state and local levels," he said.

Different opinions are coming from the Democratic Assembly caucus, where Giunchigliani and Arberry have said they think voters don't want a rebate.

"I don't think my constituents do, and I don't believe the general public does," Giunchigliani said. "When you go back to the beginning of the session, when that was released, it was like a lead balloon and the general public was saying, 'put it in the Millennium, put it in education, put it somewhere else.' "

Perkins said he hasn't ruled out the idea yet but he has staff members looking at other ways to rebate money that might involve less administrative work.

"Part of it are criticisms that are overblown," Perkins said. "Frankly, there are folks who don't want to give a rebate back. But part of it is real, and I think it's trying to find the most seamless way to do it."

The money should be used for one-shot expenditures, such as reinforcement to the Millennium Scholarship, legislative leaders said.

Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, favors using it for Millennium funds, the Rainy Day fund and a bill she has to give grants to rural Nevada communities to help with economic blight. The price tag on Senate Bill 158 is $10 million.

Then, she said, it's time to look at a rebate.

Evan Raggio remains noncommittal about a rebate, saying he'll talk about it once the Economic Forum numbers come in.

Despite the differences in opinion, most legislative leaders have vowed not to overburden the state budget, for fear it would be weighed down during future economic downturns.

"This isn't going to be a candy store," Arberry said. "This is going to be taxpayer dollars, and we are the board of directors for taxpayer dollars."

Still, Arberry said, the pork requests -- he calls it Jimmy Dean -- should start rolling in after Monday.

"It won't," he said, "be Christmas in May."

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