Lawmakers ask Eureka to step up; wonder where Clark money went

By David McGrath Schwartz

Thursday, April 28, 2011 | 8:15 p.m.

In a quest for money, lawmakers scrutinized local governments in a hearing Thursday, asking flush Eureka County to help the state and wondering where Clark County had allocated $1.5 billion from 2009 to 2010.

Clark County's unreserved ending fund balance went from $2 billion in 2009 to $400 million in 2010, according to documents the county provided to the Legislature. Yolanda King, finance director for Clark County, said the numbers shouldn't be compared; the first number uses a different accounting method that doesn't factor in things like ongoing highway projects the county is funding.

Assemblywoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas, and chair of the tax committee, was skeptical.

"The way you explain it on Channel 4" - the Clark County television station - "is 'we're going to allocate money so the state doesn't take it.' That's pretty clear." (Kirkpatrick also noted later that she watches City Council and County Commission meetings “because, frankly, you’re mean and you blame us (the Legislature) for everything bad.”

The joint committees of Assembly Taxation and Senate Revenue asked for counties and cities to come back with more detailed reports on their ending fund balances.

Don Burnette, the Clark County manager, said if the county had the money, "we would avoid the cuts we're having to make."

Mike Rebaleati, the recorder/auditor for Eureka County, which is sitting on a $30 million ending fund balance because of the gold mining boom, said the county has never been asked to help the state.

"Nobody ever approached us, honestly," he told the joint Assembly Taxation and Senate Revenue committees on Thursday.

Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, said, "The governor may not have asked. But we will ask."

Rebaleati said Eureka County knows that when gold prices go down, it will have to live off its savings. "We know how poor we were; we know how poor we will be," he said.

But for now, Eureka is the "flip side of the economic conditions of the state."

Eureka is able to restore historic buildings, fund rural health clinics, replace infrastructure and prepare for an influx of new workers with a mine that is expected to open soon.

"I'm not embarrassed. We do feel for other counties in the state, but we haven't made cuts," he said. The state exports sales taxes and the mining taxes to the rest of the state.

Gov. Brian Sandoval's proposed budget calls for property tax money be diverted from Clark and Washoe counties; school district bond reserves to be used for operations, primarily in Clark and Washoe counties; and a number of services getting pushed down to the county level.