Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

The local ripple: How Trump’s spartan budget could hit Nevada communities

Copper Mine

Debra Reid / AP

In this Nov. 30, 2004, file photo, an evaporation pond holds contaminated fluid and sediment at the former Anaconda mine. In September 2016, the EPA took final steps to declare the former Anaconda copper mine in Lyon County a Superfund site, opening up $31 million in federal funding. President Donald Trump’s proposed budget cuts could reduce the federal dollars available for enforcement of the Superfund program.

You don’t mess with dogs, and you don’t mess with seniors.

It’s a lesson Lyon County Manager Jeff Page has learned in local government. “(Senior citizens) will pack the chambers,” he said.

With the Trump administration proposing to cut community grants for programs such as Meals on Wheels, officials in the sparsely populated conservative county near Reno are concerned about the local fallout.

Meals on Wheels can provide a safety net, Page said, allowing seniors to keep their independence and help the county save on more costly forms of aid, such as housing assistance. “If we lose those dollars, it’s going to cost more,” Page said. And the problem is that the government is already tapped out, meaning fewer services provided to fewer people. “There’s no room to increase our taxes,” he said.

Although the federal budget will be determined by Congress — not the executive branch — in the coming months, local and state officials across the U.S. are concerned about President Donald Trump’s proposal, which would reduce or eliminate funding for programs affecting the environment, the arts and social services.

Many of the programs would impact the poor and senior citizens. But presidents often put these proposals on the chopping block, and they rarely pass through Congress.

Click to enlarge photo

Meals on Wheels volunteer Michael Prior delivers food to client Carmen Roybal, 87 years old, Friday, June 10, 2016.

The federal government disbursed $17.7 billion in contracts, grants and loans last year to Nevada municipalities and organizations. Much of that federal funding would remain intact under Trump’s proposal, and could even increase. Trump’s budget calls for growing the National Nuclear Security Administration, which operates the Nevada test site (it received more than $500 million in 2016).

In other areas, though, the proposed budget could strain state and local agencies required to comply with federal regulations. Cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency — a proposed 31 percent of its budget — would trickle down to the states. Nevada receives about one-third of its environmental budget from the federal government. In 2016, the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection received about $13 million from the EPA.

“EPA grants are an essential part of funding NDEP’s environmental programs” Greg Lovato, administrator of the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, told The Sunday. Given the proposed reductions, he said the agency was “reviewing potential impacts of these proposed funding reductions and will further evaluate options and contingency plans as EPA’s budget works its way through Congress.”

According to an internal EPA memorandum leaked to The Washington Post, the cuts would reduce funding for state programs that focus on lead remediation, radon protection and hazardous waste cleanup. The memo argues that many of these programs are redundant and are best handled by the states.

“If these cuts are enacted by Congress at the levels that are being recommended, it will interfere with the ability of almost every state and local regulatory agency in the country to comply with their health-based air-quality standards,” said Bill Becker, head of the nonpartisan National Association of Clean Air Agencies. “These cuts are devastating and will wreak havoc.”

In late March, the National Governors Association sent a letter to congressional leadership urging “meaningful consultation with states when considering any reduction or elimination of federal funding that will shift costs to states.” Gov. Brian Sandoval signed the letter as NGA’s vice chair.

The Trump administration has proposed eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, programs that provide large grants to the Nevada Arts Council and Nevada Public Radio. It would slash Community Development Block Grants and a wastewater disposal fund for rural areas. Trump’s budget also would reduce funding for PILT (Payments in Lieu of Taxes), which reimburses counties that forgo property tax on parcels owned by the federal government. This is an especially important tool for states in the West, where nearly half of the land is federally owned (in Nevada, it’s 85 percent).

Lyon County received about $2 million in PILT funding last year, and the county has seen the federal government adjust payments in the past. “We never put that $2 million in our operating budget, mainly because politicians do this (stuff) all the time,” Page said. But he said losing it would still be a “big deal” because it helps the growing county keep up with capital improvements.

At a town hall last week, Northern Nevada constituents grilled U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., and Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., about cuts to the EPA. “We’ll take a very close look at the EPA budget, and I guarantee you there will be things in that budget I don’t agree with, including the EPA cuts,” Heller said.

“The president does not make the budget,” Amodei stressed. “It’s Congress that makes the budget.”

But Becker said that even though the budget was not set in stone, the administration had left both Republican and Democratic lawmakers restricted in negotiating a compromise position. “(The budget) will trigger a fight among very important programs for limited resources,” he said.

Last week, Lyon County posted a story about PILT on its Facebook page. One resident commented: “Everyone wants a more conservative and responsible government, until it actually happens.”

Another resident responded: “Or, if it affects them. It’s called welfare chauvinism.”

Lyon County replied: “Very true.”

Though Page is monitoring the situation, he said he hadn’t heard from many residents. “I don’t get a lot of feedback on these types of programs from the constituents until after it’s too late,” he said.

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