Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Carson City:

Lawmaker: Local money in play for state budget

Shots across the bow have become shots to the stomach as state lawmakers look at local government coffers to help balance the budget.

“Don’t stay far away from the table,” Assemblywoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick, the pugnacious chairwoman of the house’s Government Affairs Committee, warned local government officials this week. “It could be ugly for those who decide not to participate.”

Her remarks prompted one local government lobbyist to say, “The threats aren’t even veiled anymore.”

Southern Nevada governments testified Wednesday before the Government Affairs Committee about their own financial straits, arguing that they can’t afford the state raiding their revenue or dumping services on them.

Gov. Jim Gibbons has proposed the state take some property and sales tax money now directed to local governments and eliminate some funding set aside to provide medical care to the poor.

Though the Legislature has vowed to make vast changes to Gibbons’ budget, few in Carson City believe local governments will emerge from the process unscathed.

Asked what she meant by her comment, Kirkpatrick, a North Las Vegas Democrat, said, “Everyone is saying, ‘Don’t affect me. Don’t affect me.’ We all have to be at the table to discuss who should provide services.”

•••

Gibbons’ proposed gutting of the state Nuclear Projects Agency may be partially reversed.

The governor’s budget called for the office, responsible for fighting the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, to be cut to two employees from seven.

But Bruce Breslow, the office’s newly installed director, told the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday that he has asked for four employees and money to contract with another former employee of the office.

Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, said if the office were gutted it would signal to Yucca Mountain supporters that the state has quit fighting the project.

Breslow assured the committee that Gibbons opposes the project.

Gibbons’ budget allocates $6.9 million for the agency in each of the coming two years. Most of that money would be spent on outside contracts.

Breslow said the legal fight alone will cost between $11.7 million and $20 million. Federal money for the legal fight is now flowing to the state attorney general’s office instead of his office, he said.

State Budget Director Andrew Clinger said an internal audit is under way to determine how many staffers are needed in the office. Money will be found to fund additional positions if they’re recommended by auditors, he said.

Breslow, a former mayor of Sparks, succeeded Bob Loux, who resigned as head of the Nuclear Projects Agency after it was revealed he improperly raised his own pay and the salaries of his staff beyond the amounts approved by the Legislature.

•••

Everyone loves the speaker.

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, the Las Vegas Democrat, testified before a joint meeting of the Assembly and Senate Commerce and Labor committees on a bill to deal with the foreclosure crisis. Specifically, the proposed measure would force lenders and borrowers into a court-supervised mediation process before foreclosure begins.

After her testimony, the banking lobbyists lined up, for JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, Bank of America: Thank you, madame speaker! Thank you so much! This is great legislation! We thank the speaker for being so proactive and really addressing this issue!

Long live the speaker!

Sun reporter J. Patrick Coolican contributed to this story.

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