Sneak peek: Tough choices, little accord

CATHLEEN ALLISON / NEVADA APPEAL

Lawmakers, from left, Sen. Bernice Mathews, D-Reno; Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas; Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno; and Assembly Minority Leader Heidi Gansert, R-Reno, mingle Thursday at the Capitol after a session on the state budget.

By David McGrath Schwartz (contact)

Saturday, Nov. 22, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Carson City — If the coming budget war plays out like Thursday’s Interim Finance Committee meeting, the next six months will be long, ugly and partisan.

Among the scores of items before the committee was a proposed cut to a property tax rebate for poor seniors.

Seniors with household incomes of less than $28,000 can apply for a property tax or rent rebate from the state. Typically, the checks through this decades-old program average about $350.

But state administrators saw that if budget cuts grow, the checks could be reduced to preserve more essential services — such as home assistance for the elderly — provided by the Division for Aging Services.

Health and Human Services Director Mike Willden and Aging Services Administrator Carol Sala presented the options to the committee of 21 part-time legislators who make financial policy decisions between regular legislative sessions.

The questions could be boiled down to this: Do lawmakers want to reduce the rebate checks, which 12,000 seniors have been waiting for since August, and for which many have budgeted?

Or, do lawmakers keep the checks nearly whole, and risk having to cut more vital services later on, as budget woes continue to plague the state?

The field was set early.

Democrats wanted to send out the checks with an average $10 reduction, or about $343, arguing that many seniors depend on the money for groceries and prescriptions.

Republicans argued the state should send checks reduced to an average of $271. If there’s money available later, they could send out additional checks.

For a time, no consensus emerged.

“I think we should keep it whole this year,” said Assemblywoman Kathy McClain, a Las Vegas Democrat.

When silence followed, she looked around. “I don’t know. Help. Someone, help!”

Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, who favored reducing the checks to an average of $271, said, “We’re going to have to make difficult choices.”

As an aside, Sala jumped in to say that with budget cuts of 7 percent for this year, she would still be laying off 83 people who provide direct help to seniors.

She said she has not prepared cuts of 11 percent, as the governor’s office has now requested. “We can’t cut the budget 11 percent,” she said definitively.

Assemboyly Speaker Barbara Buckley made a motion to send out the checks of $343. She agreed that 11 percent budget cuts “weren’t possible.”

The motion failed with lawmakers voting along party lines. Among the senators, Republicans on the committee have an edge. (The IFC still reflects the preelection makeup of the Senate, when Republicans had more members.)

They were at a stalemate.

And Sala needed direction before the checks could be sent out. She was getting 120 calls a day from seniors asking about the checks. She had sent out 3,185 checks to seniors below the federal poverty line, but that covered only people with incomes of less than $10,000 a year.

Assembly Minority Leader Heidi Gansert suggested a compromise: Reduce the checks to somewhere between the $343 Democrats wanted and the $271 the Republicans sought.

But Buckley said she still wanted the higher amount. And Raggio would not budge on the lower amount.

Assemblyman Joe Hardy, a Boulder City Republican, weighed in. He said he would rather reduce the checks than lay off essential workers.

“A check is nice,” he said. “But I’d come down with life-saving, not lifestyle.”

Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, a Reno Democrat, disagreed. “These checks could mean whether someone buys groceries or gets a prescription.”

Chairman Morse Arberry, a Las Vegas Democrat, appeared exasperated. “I’ve never had a gridlock like this.”

Raggio said, “We’re talking about a rebate. We’re in a serious fiscal crisis.”

The longtime senator pointed out the state must make $300 million in cuts this year.

Finally, the parties agreed to reduce the checks to an average of $300.

It passed.

Buckley said, “I think what you’re seeing is frustration: ‘Do we cut a division that needs its personnel or penalize poor people?’ It reflects the awful choices we are going to make.”

In the end, reducing the checks to the poor seniors saved the state about $800,000.

Just another $299,200,000 to go.