Monday, Jan. 24, 2011 | 7:26 p.m.
Gov. Brian Sandoval unveiled a state budget plan Monday that relies on shifting or taking money from local governments, consolidating agencies, cutting education funding and reducing bond reserves.
Sandoval's proposed $5.8 billion general fund budget is $402 million, or 6.4 percent, less than current spending levels. It includes eliminating 824 positions, about 360 of which are currently filled. That doesn't include eliminated positions in higher education, which would be decided by campuses.
About 100 positions would come from the closure of the Nevada State Prison in Carson City, portions of which date to the 1860s. Efforts to close the prison that houses Nevada's death chamber have been rejected by lawmakers in the past, most recently in 2009.
Sandoval said closing it and moving inmates to more modern prisons would save $16 million.
The first term Republican governor's proposal preserves and slightly increases funding for human services, reflecting higher Medicaid caseloads and services to the neediest Nevadans.
Increased caseloads in Medicare are expected to cost $226 million from the general fund.
The budget retains $54 million to provide personal case services for about 6,600 people who otherwise would not be able to live independently. It also retains funding to help traumatic brain injury patients, adult day care, and other programs.
"Health and human services is very good given the conditions," said Mike Willden, agency director.
In cuts, the governor proposed eliminating state support or assessing counties for services now provided by the state, for a savings of $267 million.
The governor wants to transfer investigators that conduct pre-sentence reports from the state to counties, a move he said would save $10.6 million and eliminate 83 jobs.
For the state's communities colleges and universities, Sandoval's proposal would cut overall state and local funding by about 10 percent, roughly $94.2 million. But the plan includes allowing the state's two universities in Las Vegas and Washoe counties to take 9 cents in property tax assessments from county governments, adding $121 million.
Combined with loss of one-time federal stimulus funds in 2009, total reductions to higher education amount to 17.6 percent, the budget office said.
Sandoval's proposal would infuse $10 million into Nevada's Millennium Scholarship Program and restore $7.6 million in annual transfers from the unclaimed property account to keep the program funded through 2016.
Funding for K-12 would be reduced to $4,918 per pupil, a reduction of $270 or 5.2 percent. Administration officials said enrollment in Nevada's public schools is expected to decrease.
At the same time, Sandoval said $425 million in school bond funds are "unnecessarily locked away" and will be used to defray the costs of overall education spending.
His education proposal eliminates targeted spending for class size reduction, early childhood education, at-risk kindergarten and other programs _ about $325 million _ establishing instead a block grant program that could be used at the discretion of school districts.
A 3 percent room tax levy approved by voters in the state's two largest counties that was supposed to go to K-12 would continue to go to the general fund until 2014, adding $221.5 million.
The budget also includes $20 million to implement teacher performance pay in the second year of the biennium _ a move consistent with Sandoval's overall education reforms to end teacher tenure and reward good schools and educators.
Besides 5 percent salary cuts, Sandoval wants to reduce sick time for state employees from 15 to 12 days annually, as well as holiday pay.
Sandoval also wants to prorate subsidized health benefits for state workers, depending on their monthly hours.
The budget proposals folding the departments of information technology and personnel, buildings and grounds and state library and archives into the Department of Administration.
The Department of Cultural Affairs would be disbanded, with museums and the arts council reassigned under the Nevada Commission on Tourism. Other aspects would be assumed by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
The consolidations, Sandoval said, will save $5.7 million.
