Lawmakers slash Yucca fight funds

Friday, May 6, 2005 | 11:08 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Gov. Kenny Guinn's allocation of $2 million for the legal fight against Yucca Mountain was slashed by a joint meeting of Senate and Assembly budget committees this morning.

In the first meeting this session, the Senate Finance Committee and the Assembly Ways and Means Committee agreed to spend $1 million over the next two years rather than the $2 million.

Guinn had recommended $1 million each year in the coming biennium to hire lawyers to push Nevada's case against the nuclear dump site.

The two committees meet jointly to iron out their differences. In this case the Finance Committee had recommended the reduction of $1 million and the Assembly Ways and Means agreed.

But the two committees agreed to spend $75,000 more for support of the Governor's Advisory Council on Education on the Holocaust. Guinn had proposed $75,000 but the two committees agreed it should be $150,000.

In this case the Assembly Ways and Means Committee wanted the higher figure and the Senate committee agreed.

The committees of the Senate and Assembly must get together to has out the two houses' differences regarding the 2005-2007 state budget.

Meanwhile a Senate-Assembly budget subcommittee on human resoures later deadlocked whether to provide more money for the growing number of patients with AIDS.

There are currently 881 AIDS infected persons receiving money for their medication. The state is now spending an estimated $845 per client per month.

The state Health Division had estimated that the number of people eligible for state aid will grow by 9 percent in each of the next two years. It asked for an additional $1.7 million over the next two years to provide drugs for these patients and to make sure there was no waiting list.

The Assembly members of the subcommittee endorsed a modified increase of $742,332 above what the governor recommended. That would allow the division to serve an additional 38 clients next year and 65 the following year.

But the Senate balked at that proposal. Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said the health division should be allowed to come back to the Interim Finance Committee for more money if these increases occur above the budget.

Raggio and Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Reno, agreed. The two Senate Democrats on the subcommittee -- Dina Titus of Las Vegas and Bernice Mathews of Reno -- agreed that the extra $746,332 be provided for the program over the next two years.

Guinn's budget calls for $12.4 million each year to pay for the medication of those with AIDS. Of that $10.8 million comes from the federal government. State funding for the program under the governor's budget was $1.5 million for each year.

Since the Senate and Assembly disagreed, this will have to be resolved when the two full Senate and Assembly committees meet.