Panels agree to budget $62 million more than Guinn's

CARSON CITY -- Legislative money committees have cleared away major disagreements over Gov. Kenny Guinn's $3.2 billion budget for the next two years with more than 55 percent of the money going to pay for children from kindergarten through college.

This budget doesn't include any money for pay increases for the 15,000 state workers, schoolteachers and university faculty. And monthly grants to welfare recipients will stay the same.

The budget as it stands now is about $62 million higher than what Guinn recommended with most of that money going into education.

The Senate Finance and the Assembly Ways and Means Committee met for the third time Thursday to resolve differences.

The Assembly committee backed down on its plan to abolish the state's lobbying office in Washington, D.C., which the Guinn administration lobbied hard for. And the Assembly committee agreed to approve the reorganization of the state Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety.

"This pretty well wraps up the budget," said Assemblyman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. In the negotiations between the two committees, the Assembly panel, in most cases, backed off its stands and agreed to accept the recommendations of the Senate.

While legislative staff start to draft the budget, some minor disagreements remain between the two sides, but they are expected to be resolved in the next day or two.

In addition to the budget, there is a bill that spends an estimated $230 million for the state's construction program in the next two years.

There are still scores of bills in each of the budget committees that amount to several million dollars in requests. They are outside the biennial budget, which must be introduced by Monday. And the session must end by May 31.

Both committees agreed Thursday to restore $500,000 to the senior citizens volunteer programs that were cut by Guinn.

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