Nevada state government opens fiscal new year

More than $4.8 billion in state and federal funds will be pumped into state agencies to carry them to June 1999. That's a 6 percent jump in funding compared with the just-ended fiscal year.

The state should have a comfortable reserve of more than $80 million this year despite lagging tax revenues.

State Budget Director Perry Comeaux said that although sales and gaming taxes didn't produce as much revenue as expected, there were savings by some agencies to offset some lost revenue.

The services for newborns, part of Gov. Bob Miller's Family to Family program, will help parents of children up to 1 year old, according of Project Director Barbara Ludwig.

The state Division of Mental Hygiene and Mental Retardation will begin new programs and expand others to help people with mental problems.

Among new projects is the 16-bed Bruce Adams Community Residential Treatment Center in Las Vegas, which should start in September.

Educare, a similar treatment facility in Reno, should be ready by August.

State workers will get a 3 percent cost-of-living boost, but the employees' unions say that doesn't make up for the years in which workers didn't get pay hikes.

The State of Nevada Employees Association is seeking a 6.4 percent pay raise starting in July 1999.

In January, the state's elected officials will get a pay raise. The governor's annual salary of $90,000 will rise to $117,000; the lieutenant governor from $20,000 to $50,000; secretary of state, treasurer and controller from $62,500 to $80,000; and the attorney general from $85,000 to $110,000.

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