State board OKs $509,000 request for stimulus ‘czar’ staff

By Cy Ryan (contact)

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 | 4:29 p.m.

CARSON CITY – The state Board of Examiners has approved asking for nearly $509,000 in emergency funds to hire staff to oversee the estimated $2 billion in federal stimulus funds heading to Nevada.

Before approval, board members Secretary of State Ross Miller and Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto posed a number of questions about ways to reduce expenses related to overseeing the funds.

Board Chairman Gov. Jim Gibbons and state Budget Director Andrew Clinger said the federal government has tight reporting restrictions and if the state fails to adhere, it could lose the funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, designed to help the nation recover from its economic downturn.

The plan of Gibbons is to hire a so-called stimulus “czar” to oversee all of the money coming into the state and make sure it is being spent efficiently. An individual -- hired at $120,000 a year -- would serve under the office of the governor and be responsible for answering the questions of the public, local governments and the press about the stimulus and for submitting related reports to the federal government.

Clinger estimated there would be 1,000 grants allocated from this money.

Miller questioned whether some vacant positions in the governor’s office or the state Budget Division could fill these two positions rather than hiring new staff. Or he said there might be some vacant positions in other part of government that could take on this responsibility.

The governor quickly suggested that Miller might be willing to give up some of his employees to staff the new office. Miller shot back his office has cut its budget by 16 percent.

Clinger said the governor’s budget is down $111,000 for salaries this year and $180,000 less for operating. He said the governor felt it was best to approach the Legislative Interim Finance Committee, which meets Monday, for these emergency funds.

Gibbons said a full-time person is needed and other states are doing the same thing.

Masto questioned paying $120,000 to the person in this new position. Masto wondered if other cabinet officers might be offended by the high salary for this position.

Clinger told her that this was in the salary range of other cabinet officers.

The position will probably be eliminated by July 2011 if no further stimulus funds are available, he said.

The board also approved $251,220 to hire a project manager to coordinate stimulus funds for health information projects.

Masto said this might be reduced by $100,000 from a court settlement the state has received.

But the examiners board voted to ask for the full amount, pending the approval of the use of these court settlement funds.

The money will permit the state to go forward with writing grants to acquire up to $170 million of the stimulus money for modernizing the health system.

Part of this money would go to hospitals and doctors’ offices to install new information technology systems that would permit the medical history of Medicaid patients to be available on the Web.