Thursday, March 20, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
According to Assembly Ways and Means Chairman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, the money will fund debris removal and road and bridge repair. He requested the vote on AB224 to try to get the measure passed more quickly.
The appropriation approved Wednesday and sent to the Senate is only a small part of AB224, which also establishes new rules for disaster-assistance funding.
AB224 also would allow local governments to borrow up to 15 percent of the money in the state's so-called "rainy day" fund to match federal grants in future disasters. Currently, about $100 million is in that fund.
Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, asked fellow lawmakers why the state wasn't allowed to borrow money from the rainy day fund and introduced an amendment to make that a possibility.
But Assemblywoman Jan Evans, D-Sparks, opposed the amendment, saying such a change had not been discussed by the Ways and Means Committee. The Assembly voted against the amendment.
"Yes, we call this a rainy day fund, and we had a lot of rainy days," Evans said. "But we did not have a full discussion of such a policy change."
Still, Giunchigliani said she will continue to fight to allow the state use the rainy day fund for such disasters.
"For a long time, I've been asking why the state isn't using its rainy day fund, and this was the first policy to change that," said Giunchigliani. "If local governments can apply for a percentage of a federal match, the state should have the same opportunity to do that."
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