Emergency funds of $3.5 million sought for mental health and medical marijuana

By Cy Ryan

Thursday, Aug. 8, 2013 | 6:30 p.m.

The state Department of Taxation wants about $530,000 from an emergency account to set up a system to collect the excise tax on the upcoming sale of medical marijuana.

Meanwhile, the Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services is asking for $3 million from the same contingency fund to help pay for expansion of the former Stein Hospital in Las Vegas to alleviate the problems at Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital.

These are two of the items on the Tuesday agenda of the State Board of Examiners to tap into the emergency fund that must eventually be approved by the Legislative Interim Finance Committee at its Aug. 29 meeting. The fund has an estimated $12 million available.

The 2013 law that permits the dispensing of medical marijuana includes a section that a 2 percent excise tax must be imposed both on the wholesale and retail sales of medical marijuana.

The tax was added to the bill late in the session and did not include any money for the tax department to set up the machinery to collect these taxes.

Sen. Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, was the key sponsor of the medical marijuana bill and he said the $529,226 seems "incredibly high" since it will be sometime in mid-2014 before the sales start.

He noted the department initially told the governor the collections would cost $2 million.

The department will have to justify the request before the board, headed by Gov. Brian Sandoval and then get legislative approval.

The Rawson-Neal hospital in Las Vegas has been criticized for its handling of mentally ill patients and not having enough beds to care for those with mental problems.

The Legislature set aside $2 million for expansion of 19 beds at the former Stein Mental Hospital. The state Department of Health and Human Services has proposed asking for another $3 million for additional beds.

The department wanted to take the money from life safety projects planned for Lake's Crossing, the hospital in Sparks for mentally ill patients facing criminal charges.

The legislative committee rejected cancelling the Northern Nevada projects and told state officials to come back with another solution, including possibly dipping into the emergency contingency fund.

The finance committee did approved spending $2.1 million to hire more staff and for additional beds at Rawson-Neal.