Jobs safe at Health and Human Services, but cuts will still hurt

By Cy Ryan (contact)

Thursday, Jan. 3, 2008 | midnight

CARSON CITY -- The Health and Human Services Department, the biggest agency in state government, must reduce its budget by $78 million but won't make any layoffs in doing so.

Employees, however, will not be getting new computers and will be affected in other ways.

“We're putting the skids on travel and training,” department Director Mike Willden said.

State agencies have handed in their proposed budget reductions to comply with Gov. Jim Gibbons' order to cut 4.5 percent over the next 18 months. After Gibbons approves the planned reductions, the cuts will be made public.

State Budget Director Andrew Clinger said the public will have a chance to comment on the budget cuts at a meeting of the state Board of Examiners, headed by the governor.

The $78 million cut in state money will also probably cost the Health and Human Services Department about $30 million in federal money by eroding Nevada's ability to meet some programs' state-federal matching guidelines.

Willden said current programs, which include child protection, welfare for families and aid for the disabled, are safe from the cuts. But there may be limited or no expansion of such programs.

The Legislature allocated $35.2 million, including $16.8 million in state money, for increased payments to doctors and other medical professionals who treat Medicaid patients. The rate hike is scheduled to take effect in August.

At a meeting of the Legislative Committee on Health Care last month, Sen. Maurice Washington, R-Sparks, asked Willden whether that proposed rate increase will be deferred or canceled because of the budget crunch. Willden refused to say.

The Legislature also approved rate increases for Health Maintenance Organizations and transportation and pharmacy services in the Medicaid program. The rates went up this fiscal year but are projected also to increase in July to cover inflation. The slated raises are 4.9 percent for those who transport Medicaid recipients, 7.5 percent for pharmacies and 7.4 percent for HMOs.

There's also a rate increase planned for low-income families that care in their homes for their children under 6 with severe mental disabilities. The rate, raised in July from $350 to $362, is to go up to $374 this July, assuming it is not canceled.

Sen. Steve Horsford, D-Las Vegas, compared the cutbacks in human services to “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” These “gifts,” he said, were promised to low-income people and now are in danger of not being delivered.

@Dots:•••

Former Nevada Supreme Court Justice Miriam Shearing has been assigned to hear arguments in the suit filed by casino owners to stop the initiative petition being pushed by the teachers union to raise the state's gaming tax.

Shearing has set Jan. 18 for a hearing in Carson City District Court on the suit by the Nevada Resort Association against the Nevada State Education Association, which wants to raise the gaming tax from 6.75 percent to 9.75 percent on casinos that gross more than $1 million per month.

The education association must gather more than 60,000 signatures to qualify the measure for the November ballot.

Cy Ryan may be reached at (775) 687-5032 or at cy@lasvegassun.com.