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AP Photo/Scott Sady
Gov. Jim Gibbons, center, stands with Dan Burns, his communications director, left, and a camera operator for the state as he prepares to give his State of the State speech upstairs in the Capitol building in Carson City on Monday, Feb. 8, 2010.
Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2010 | 2 a.m.
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State of the State
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Gov. Jim Gibbons gave an emergency State of the State address at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 8. Video is courtesy KVBC Channel 3.
Sun Archives
- Governor plans emergency address on Nevada budget (2-7-10)
- Governor’s speech will lay out state’s budget problems (2-7-10)
- State budget comes up $800 million short (1-22-10)
- Forecast: Economy will begin to rebound in mid-2011 (1-22-10)
- Gibbons’ no-talk order further divides branches (1-22-10)
- Special session may require help of state Supreme Court (1-10-10)
Sun Coverage
During Gov. Jim Gibbons’ State of the State speech Monday, he told Nevadans to prepare for a smaller state government. Although the list of what he wants to jettison is not finalized, and some of these cuts need legislative approval, lawmakers privately have signaled that many will go through.
The cuts would run from the dramatic — allowing more mentally ill to become homeless — to the mundane — eliminating vacant positions.
The state would save $1 million by reducing janitorial services in buildings from five or six times a week to three days a week. At the Gaming Control Board, 27 investigators and auditors would be laid off.
Still, the cuts represent just a fraction of the $881 million hole Gibbons and the Legislature must close. Operations cuts total $162 million, slicing into health and human services, prisons, public safety and general government. The governor and lawmakers are considering $166 million in K-12 reductions and another $100 million in higher education cutbacks, reflecting about a 10 percent reduction of state allocations.
Although Gibbons rejected some proposed cuts, such as eliminating a health insurance program that covers 22,000 children of the working poor, he proposed curtailing enrollment in programs that serve the mentally ill, mentally disabled and seniors.
“It will be very, very difficult for someone to get into a service if they’re not already in it,” Health and Human Services spokesman Ben Kieckhefer said.
The Legislature will hold hearings beginning today on cuts, based on a document that will be given to lawmakers, proposed for the Health and Human Services Department, such as:
• Increase premiums of Nevada Check Up, which provides health care to children of the working poor. Quarterly premiums will go from $25 to $75 for some, and $75 to $180 for others ($1 million in cuts).
• Eliminate coverage for eye glasses for 6,300 people on Medicaid ($716,000).
• Eliminate hearing aids and hearing tests for those on Medicaid ($131,000).
• Stop paying for 4,400 Nevadans’ dentures ($2.5 million).
• Reduce the number of incontinence products, such as adult diapers and bed pads, that Medicaid will pay for ($830,000).
• End adult day care for 367 people. It’s typically used to care for an adult while the spouse or family member works ($2.1 million).
• Cut state reimbursement for nursing homes ($3 million).
• Not hire 77 staff workers to process welfare cases, slowing benefits for clients and falling further behind federal standards, according to the department ($1.4 million).
• Not provide housing assistance to the mentally disabled not currently enrolled in the state program. The department estimates about 300 fewer people will receive housing throughout the state ($6 million).
• Not provide housing assistance for the mentally ill. “This cut will increase the number of mentally ill homeless individuals in the community and put additional stress on community emergency rooms,” according to a department summary ($4 million).
• Eliminate the problem gambling program, which provides grants for treatment and prevention ($1.8 million).
• Reduce enrollment in the Community Services Options Program for the Elderly, which works to keep seniors in their homes ($1.2 million).
• Reduce Medicaid reimbursement for anesthesiologists ($2.5 million).
• Put certain anti-psychotic, anti-organ rejection and anti-convulsion drugs on preferred drug lists. Drugs not on the preferred list would require approval from the state before it pays for them ($767,000).
• Reduce payments for personal care attendants for the elderly and disabled by $1.50 an hour, to $15.50 per hour ($3 million).
• Reduce hospital reimbursement rates by 5 percent ($5.3 million).
• Reduce reimbursement rates to psychiatric facilities serving youth ($900,000).
• Reduce psychiatric visits in rural counties ($291,000).
• Reduce by 22 beds the capacity at Southern Nevada’s psychiatric hospital ($1.5 million).
• Freeze vacant positions at the state’s institution for the criminally insane, which, “may undermine the facility’s ability to maintain patient and staff safety” ($1.3 million).
• Close the Southern Nevada youth prison, Summit View Correction Center. Some youths would be transferred to lower-security facilities in Elko and Caliente, while others would be released into the community ($3.7 million).
• Cut by 10 percent Washoe and Clark counties’ child welfare and child protective services. Clark County has not addressed this possibility ($6.1 million).
• Eliminate tobacco cessation programs ($2.8 million).
• Put $40 million from the state’s tobacco settlement fund into the state general fund ($40 million).
• Cut funding for autism treatment ($1.5 million).
Gibbons basically balances the budget on the weakest members of our community. This budget is inhumane. Not a word about businesses, corporations or mining paying a fair share for living and earning money in this state? When the going gets tough, Nevada governor Jim Gibbons takes adult depends and care away from senior citizens, dentures away from people without teeth, medicine and housing away from mentally ill citizens, raises the cost of insurance for poor people, slashes money for addiction treatment and cuts out treatment for autistic children.
What shall we call this gov? The "Compassionate One?"
this is sad. is this true about senior citizen about medicare/medicaid u will see mass exodus to arizona
If tax revenues are down, then they're down, and cuts need to be made. My business in Nevada already pays its fair share. It pays far more than its fair share to the IRS.
Maybe these cuts could have been made elsewhere.
I would sincerely be interested in hearing ideas from other politicians how to balance the budget, other than simply raising taxes.
We already lead the nation in elderly suicides. This will certainly help Nevada keep that cherished first place...
I worked in law enforcement in California when Governor Reagan cut budgets, putting the mentally ill on the streets. It's not a pretty sight or a safe environment.
As usual, it's the poor and helpless who pay the penalty for decisions made by bought and paid for politicians.
On the plus side, 27 less gaming commission investigators will be good news for the casino industry...
It might be time to institute a state Income Tax like other states, but not as high.
Ya, we all get to suffer. But the mining industry gets to walk away still paying only 1/2 of 1% in taxes, and our "leader" will not even bring up a discussion about whether that's a possible revenue source to tap. Revenues are not down; rather, we don't have any leadership to seek, find, and obtain new revenues.
This is the biggest kid in school, beating up on the smallest kid. it is shameful.
Cut off all the loafers. Let them return to California.
"It pays far more than its fair share to the IRS."
huh -- you may have inadvertently hit this nail on the head. The IRS collects for the feds, not the state. Which begs the question -- how many of these cuts are for federally-mandated programs the feds forgot to fund?
Funny how during a budget crisis around 2003 I was sitting on a small county's domestic violence steering committee. It was so bad the courts were shutting the doors one day a week. Yet a person with the county health department was still actively going out the day after restraining orders were issued to sign up the mothers for a full range of state programs. And state employees were still going to their conferences at nice resorts.
It seems Gibbons and the legislature are doing what most governments won't do -- trimming the fat. Example -- how many non-violent offenders (child support, marijuana, some really stupid sex offenses) are in prison? Let 'em out! How many school administrative positions can be eliminated without affecting actual teaching? And so on.
Nevada Senate Majority Leader Steve Horsford, D-Las Vegas, and Assembly Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, promised us a lot when Democrats took full control of the 2009 Legislature last year.
They promised to "PREVENT" foreclosures in Nevada, create economic diversification and improve public education.
What happened to all that? They raised taxes
A good chunk of the saftey net is probably spent on government workers.
I've got a better solution. If people need help, just give them the money.
What will be a stronger movement among the political left this year?
A) The call to raise taxes.
Or
B) Efforts to encourage locals to donate their money to help the needy.
Eliminating eyeglasses, hearing aids, dentures, and incontinence pads yet keeping the gubber's mansion staff, chauffers, jet fleet, and pilots only shows how intellectually incontinent Mr. Gibbons is.
Most of these eliminations will only lead to greater medical problems with greater medical costs by shifting the burden to our most defenceless class of citizens and letting Big Gambling and Big Mining off the hook.
I am truely, deeply ashamed that our state has come to this level of punishing those who had no hand in what has happened and rewarding those who are responsible.
I saw nothing in the Governor's proposed cuts that addresses the collection of overpayments and other fees. For example, during the 2007 legislative session the Nevada Medicaid Administrator (Duarte) incredulously reported that "the auditor" found an $8M overpayment to Clark County. We also have overpayments in other DHHS divisions...who's going to push the Governor to address that issue? In addition, in November 2009 in a Nevada News Bureau article, there was an investigation about the credentials of some to the "leaders" in the executive branch...specifically, the Administrator of the Div of Child and Family Services. In the article, it was determined that she is clearly unqualified (no college degree) yet we are paying her over $100K per year plus benefits. Buckley and Leslie both were quoted in the article as supporting such nonsense. I'm sure the DCFS Administrator is not the only person in a leadership position who is lacking in qualification and credentials...the Governor needs to look at these issues. It's one thing to promise not to raise taxes (a philosophy about which I agree) but it's quite another to demonstrate such poor stewardship of our collective tax dollars (esp. when it comes to positions which directly impact the very lives of Nevada's most vulnerable children) which are collected and used to support social service and other Executive Branch programs. Looking at the whole picture in addressing this budget crisis is called leadership...I, for one, would like to see this Governor demonstrate some.
I spoke to a county commissioner yesterday and asked "why cant you and everyone else that double dips, cut your salaries out? or even reduce it by half ? his answer
"oh.... no..no .. we can do that. you will never see that."
lost my vote
I have been asking for months to cut the fat at the top now it looks like the gov. has his sites on the less fortunate .
Yep they all lost my vote...
To ivegotcha
Did a county commissioner actually say that? That is not that unbelievable but double dipping is quite common in the Clark County Government.
For those who don't know what this is, it is where a Clark County employee or any government employee, retires from their taxpayer funded government job and returns and assumes the same job as either a contractor or new hire!
Now what this does is to allow them to keep their entire retirement salary of which they took when they left, return back to the same job and draw the pay they had prior to being retired.
So they earn double, hence, double dipping. Double the salary by dipping into tax payer dollars.
Jeff DURBIN is an Independent American running for the office of Clark County Commissioner and he has seen this before in other government agencies and does not believe we should ever allow a government employee back on the payroll as a new hire or a contractor filling that same job.
DURBIN feels that by doing this, we are doing a disservice to the other employees who could of had used that job to better theirselves and if we had more people qualified to do that task of the double dipper we would be providing a better service to the taxpayers.
If you ever learned anything in the military you will of had learned that no one is not expendable. It is of the utmost importance to always have a person to step up and take over if a person moves on or is taken out.
If you ever watch old war movies they always talk about people learning jobs of person above them and job of person below them to ensure continuity and to always have an opportunity to continue any tasking.
To hire these double-dippers is not good for Clark County and DURBIN has vowed he will stop it permanently because it is not good for us, as tax payers!
So enjoy your double dipping salaries while you can, when Independent American DURBIN sits on commission this coming year, you will have to take another job in another industry!
If you don't like that, you will have to revoke your retirement salaries. And work for only one paycheck. If you don't like that, you are free to get a job in a casino or other industry, but you will not be welcomed as a double dipper period!!! We need to increase employment opportunities for others when you retire, not let you back in and earn double for same job, it is not right, and it is unfair to taxpayers of Clark County!
Since DURBIN is an Independent American, he has the unique skills of seeing beyond the day-to-day corrupt ways of doing business in Clark County Government and this is pure theft no more, no less!
Yes, that was said to me... because I have since 2007 when the economy began to tank had asked that all county and state officials to reduce their pay and stop the double dips.... I even went so far to ask those with outside income (jobs) to take the county or state position as voluntary.... need I say they just laughed.
Here is a shocker, why cant the county and state employees pay for thier own retirements.... wow that is a no brainer, being its being paid for them... public sector pays thier own with maybe a percentage from the employer....
How about a real shocker ivegotcha and get your facts together, State Employees make contributions to their pension. Washoe County pays for their employees and I am not sure about Clark.
Jim Gibbons is a sociopath in a business suit.
Patrick R. Gibbons, are you serious?
Are there methane fumes seeping into your think tank?
"What will be a stronger movement among the political left this year?
A) The call to raise taxes.
Or
B) Efforts to encourage locals to donate their money to help the needy."
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!
Are the "needy" teachers going to be paid by DONATIONS that people, "out of the goodness of their hearts", "IF" they can afford it, allot to them?
Are women going to starve or freeze to death with their children if enough locals don't "donate their money to help the needy"?
Will the elderly suffer untimely deaths unless "locals donate their money to help the needy"?
I hope you aren't holding your breath, either because of the methane fumes OR waiting for the well-heeled "out of kindness" to rescue the STATE!
HA!
I think you better get some fresh air, Pat... OXYGEN!