Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

politics:

Gibbons skirts legislators in action to oversee stimulus

Gov. Jim Gibbons

Gov. Jim Gibbons

Power Struggle

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Gov. Jim Gibbons issued an executive order on Friday to create a director in his office to oversee $2.2 billion in stimulus money, circumventing earlier legislative action and raising legal questions about his order.

Gibbons said he would not abdicate the job that Nevadans elected him to do, and said that the reporting process the Legislature set up -- to have a position in the controller's office report the money -- was unwieldy.

He said the Interim Finance Committee set up a "convoluted reporting process. We need someone to expand and implement our use of American Recovery and Relief Act funds."

The $120,000-a-year position and $56,000-a-year administrative assistant, as well as $80,000 in benefits and other expenses, would be paid for through American Recovery and Relief Act money. The administrative costs, allowed under the stimulus, still require federal approval, which could take six weeks, according to Gibbons' staff.

Changes to the budget, as well as accepting federal grant money, has been the purview of the Legislature. When the part-time Legislature is not in session, that job falls to the Interim Finance Committee, which is made up of legislators.

The IFC approval has been required to accept federal grants in excess of $50,000 or any federal grant that employs additional staff.

But Gibbons said the stimulus grants him the authority over the $2.2 billion the state is set to receive.

"The federal law supersedes state law," Gibbons said during a press conference Monday. (It was a surprising statement from Gibbons, who in his time in Congress and nearly two years in the governor's mansion had advocated for state's rights.)

The Interim Finance Committee earlier this month rejected Gibbons' plan to create a stimulus director in his office. Instead, they lowered the salary and created what was more an accounting position under Controller Kim Wallin, a Democrat. That position would help state agencies fulfill reporting requirements.

Gibbons' staff instructed department heads not to work with Wallin on the stimulus.

Gibbons questioned the legality of the IFC's action as well as the constitutionality of the office. But he said right now, he's not going to file a lawsuit.

Gibbons invited the Legislature to file a lawsuit against his action.

"If they want to challenge this, they want to go to court, they want to waste taxpayer money and time challenging this, so be it. Let them sue me," he said. "This is the way the state of Nevada is going to move forward with the ARRA funds."

Neither Gibbons nor his staff would say whether they have received a legal opinion telling him the executive order is legal.

"We have the Constitution standing behind us," Gibbons said. "That's the legal authority."

Robin Reedy, Gibbons' chief of staff, said they had provided the attorney general's office a "courtesy call" because of the possibility. "There are many, many lawyers in the world, and we work with many people," she said. She pointed to the deputy chiefs of staff, one of whom is a former legislator and one is a former executive director of the Nevada Commission on Ethics. "We're confident in this executive order."

But his executive order is unlikely to end the tug-of-war between Gibbons and the Democrat-controlled Legislature.

Andrew Clinger, Gibbons' budget director, said he would submit the change to the budget to Controlle Wallin. He said a proposal to approve the administrative costs will be submitted to the federal government in a week, and the governor's office has been told those plans are being processed in 60 days.

Gibbons at first denied that they would change budget accounts, known as work programs.

"We didn't say we would change a work program," he said when asked if he didn't need the authority. "I don't think you even heard that word."

Earlier in the press conference, Reedy said they would be changing work programs through the normal budgetary process.

Reedy also said state would move forward without legislators' approval to spend $10.5 million in stimulus money weatherizing homes. The Interim Finance Committee had rejected the state Housing Division's plan, delaying the expenditure of that money.

Wallin was travelling and unavailable for comment immediately. Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, did not return a call for comment.

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