LOOKING IN ON: CARSON CITY

Tuesday, May 8, 2007 | 7:39 a.m.

CARSON CITY - Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus says she's tired of the Gibbons administration proposing new spending without the money to pay for it.

Titus directed her criticism Monday at Gibbons' state Energy Director Hatice Gecol, who testified in support of a bill for the state to send $3 million to the private Nevada Institute for Renewable Energy Commercialization.

The $3 million request is outside the budget submitted by Gibbons and comes when the Legislature's budget committees must cut spending or raise taxes. Titus, D-Las Vegas, noted that the Gibbons administration also was before the committee last week for another large appropriation not included in the budget.

"Why doesn't he come with funding?" Titus asked Gecol. "He supports this but he doesn't support raising taxes."

Gecol said she hoped the Senate Finance Committee could find the money because this is "very important," but added: "It's just $3 million."

Senate Bill 560 would allocate the money for the institute's planning, staffing and early start-up. Its goal is a public-private partnership "to advance the commercialization of cost-effective renewable energy."

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, defended the governor, saying the program was not developed until after Gibbons submitted his budget to the Legislature.

But Titus said later she had talked with an institute official last fall who said the plan also had been discussed with Gibbons.

The Finance Committee did not take any action.

Faced with growing overcrowding in the state prison system, an Assembly committee has taken actions aimed at easing the problem - eventually.

The Assembly Ways and Means Committee has approved and sent to the House floor a bill that would provide $826,597 for preliminary work toward the purchase of four pre-engineered units to house 960 inmates early next year.

Evan Dale, an official in the state Public Works Board, told the Assembly panel the board wants to sign a contract by May 18 to begin preliminary work such as soil sampling and design for the units, estimated to cost $29.3 million. If the Assembly approves the bill this week, Gibbons could sign it by Friday, immediately freeing up the money.

Darrel Rexwinkel, fiscal officer for the state Department of Corrections, said the units, which would hold 240 inmates each, will be located at Southern Desert Prison and the Southern Nevada Women's Prison, both in Clark County, and at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City.

Senate Bill 190 exempts the project from competitive bidding to expedite it.

There are 13,113 inmates in the state's eight prisons, 1,196 over capacity.

The committee also approved Senate Bill 282, which appropriates $7.5 million to fund the prisons through June 30, when fiscal 2007 ends.

The Ways and Means Committee also is considering a bill to double the good time and education credits for prison inmates, allowing them to be released sooner. Prison officials estimate that Assembly Bill 510 would reduce the state's prison population by 3,800 inmates over the next 10 years.

Overall, Gibbons has recommended nearly $300 million to build prisons and improve existing ones to alleviate crowding.