State building program gets tentative approval

Tuesday, May 24, 2005 | 9:05 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A joint legislative budget committee Monday gave preliminary approval to an estimated $280 million building program for the state for the next two years, with some major projects planned for Southern Nevada.

The committee, which cut at least $45 million from Gov. Kenny Guinn's recommendations, will return Wednesday to approve a final list. The savings could spark intense lobbying by groups seeking that money for their favorite projects.

The committee generally followed Guinn's proposals, but it decided to build two instead of three housing units at the High Desert State Prison near Indian Springs. That could save an estimated $14 million of the planned $58 million.

Tracy Raxter, a program analyst for the Legislative Fiscal Analyst Division, said each unit would have 168 cells. He said the prison would have a surplus of beds in 2007 if all three units were constructed. He recommended, and the committee agreed, to defer one cellblock until 2007.

Without comment, the committee eliminated a $22 million state office building in Carson City that was to house the Human Resources Department.

It approved a $37.2 million project for the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs at UNLV, with $13 million coming from a private donation by the Greenspun family, which owns the Las Vegas Sun.

Among other items approved were $4.5 million for furniture and equipment for the Southern Nevada Psychiatric Hospital; $5.2 million for furniture and equipment for the Health Science Building at the Community College of Southern Nevada and $15.8 million for furniture and equipment for the science and engineering building at UNLV. All three are under construction and are expected to be completed in the next two fiscal years.

The committee allocated $1 million for furniture for the liberal arts building at Nevada State College in Henderson and voted for $27.1 million for the Las Vegas Readiness project to house five National Guard units. The federal government will pay $15.1 million of the cost.

Advance planning for a womens' prison re-entry center in North Las Vegas was given $2.6 million, but the committee declined to provide $383,366 for advance planning for a 1,500-bed men's prison at Indians Springs and cut out $1.2 million for advance planning of a new building in Las Vegas for the Parole and Probation Division.

It did approve $1.9 million for advance planning for a 626-bed prison conservation camp at Indian Springs, And it set aside $15 million for campus improvement projects for the university system. The financing for the projects calls for about $50 million in cash, about $190 million in bonds and $48 million in federal funds and private donations.