funding

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – A coalition of construction industry groups today advocated for a tax increase to fund public works projects around the state to help put people back to work.
The Building Jobs Coalition presented its proposal, called the “Creating 100,000 Jobs” report, in press conferences in both Las Vegas and Reno.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Nevada’s budget process is broken and needs fundamental change to bring about reasonable spending and improved performance in public education and the delivery of other government services, a free market think tank says in a new report.

Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey is joining over 350 members of the National Birth Defects Prevention Network to share the message that women of childbearing age should talk with a health care provider about which medications are safe to take while pregnant.

January is National Birth Defects Prevention Month, and this year’s campaign focuses on medication use before, during, and after pregnancy.

Carl Kuhl, a state Parole and Probation employee of six years, has created a plan that he claims will eliminate Nevada's budget deficit within two years.

In a news release issued on Tuesday, Kuhl said his plan not only will reduce the budget deficit but also help repair Nevada's economy at the same time. It is a pretty big claim, he admits, coming from an Accounting Assistant I, an entry level position.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Gov. Brian Sandoval is considering giving Nevada’s higher education system more control to spend tuition and state funds.
As part of his budget, the governor may recommend a statutory change to allow colleges and universities more authority to manage their budgets with a lesser degree of legislative control, said Dale Erquiaga, the governor’s senior advisor.

CARSON CITY – Local governments would lose some property tax revenue to help fund higher education, and college students could face higher fees, in Gov. Brian Sandoval’s budget to be unveiled Jan 24.
Sandoval, in an interview on Jon Ralston’s Face to Face television program, said both elements are in consideration as his $5.3 billion general fund spending plan is finalized in advance of the 2011 legislative session.

CARSON CITY – Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford has sent an email to supporters and constituents suggesting the next two-year state budget is facing an attack from “extreme right-wing” interests who will use the current economic crisis to “dismantle our state.”

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – A close adviser to Gov. Brian Sandoval says there are alternatives to balancing the state budget besides cutting programs or raising fees and taxes, and he identified some possibilities that could find their way into the proposed spending plan to be released later this month.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Despite a dramatic slowdown in Nevada’s population growth, and even some net out-migration for the first time in recent memory, the U.S. Census Bureau report today shows the state will gain a fourth congressional seat in 2013.

As a part of an ongoing initiative to support area non-profits, the Lake Tahoe Gaming Alliance and the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority donated $20,000 among four charities, Friday, Dec. 3 at Lakeside Inn & Casino.

Christmas Cheer received $10,000; Tahoe Youth and Family Services $5,000; South Lake Tahoe Women’s Center $3,000 and the Boys & Girls Club of Lake Tahoe $2,000.

The Carson City Convention and Visitors Bureau was awarded $14,000 in grants last week from the Nevada Commission on Tourism for three different marketing efforts, providing support for the destination’s Divine Nine Golf Co-operative, its own website and video production and advertising materials for the Virginia & Truckee Railway.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – The panel that oversees Nevada’s public employee retirement system was told today it would cost about $1.2 billion over the next two years to change from the current defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan for new state and local government workers.

A Lake Tahoe area public-private energy organization and the U.S. Energy Department have teamed up to make renewable energy more commercially available.

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Incline Village-based Nevada Institute for Renewable Energy Commercialization today announced their collaboration to accelerate the commercialization of a clean technology innovation owned and developed by the Laboratory.

RENO, Nev. – University of Nevada, Reno Orvis School of Nursing researcher Michele Pelter has been awarded $377,000 from the National Institutes of Health to study detection of ischemia, a condition that can lead to heart attacks.

Over the two-year course of the study, Pelter will work with two local cardiologists, Dr. Richard Ganchan and Dr. Anita Kedia, who will serve as consultants on the study. She wants to see if different monitoring of patients experiencing symptoms of possible ischemia could lead to better care.

At least 24 million people in the U.S. struggle with addiction to alcohol and other drugs. The good news is that millions in recovery stand as evidence that there is hope – people can stop using, reconnect with family, and go on to productive, happy lives. The Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey is one group promoting the fact that recovery is possible, prevention works and treatment is effective.

CARSON CITY – A federal appeals court today lifted a stay on cases challenging the U.S. Department of Energy’s authority to withdraw its licensing application for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Long-time Nevada tax expert Carole Vilardo said says she does not see how the state can move Nevada’s public employee retirement system to a defined contribution plan in the upcoming legislative session.

By Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – State Treasurer Kate Marshall announced today that despite the current volatile treasury market, her office has successfully completed the sale of five series of general obligation bonds totaling $161.3 million at an average interest cost of 3.6 percent, one of the lowest interest rates the state has ever received.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Despite the need for drastic spending reductions to balance Nevada’s budget, the government program that provides health care to the poor continues to expand, consuming a growing share of the state’s scarce state revenues.

By Jim Shirk

Some civic leaders tend to invest our city funds into one business proposal in the community then move to another and then another. This tax will become the next great example of that strategy.

By Nevada News Bureau
Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., said today that the House has reinstated geothermal royalties to local counties in its funding bill.
Heller worked with House appropriators to ensure revenues will continue to be distributed to local governments.

CARSON CITY – Gov. Jim Gibbons today announced the retirement of Department of Public Safety (DPS) Director Jerry Hafen. Hafen is a life-long resident of Clark County and was appointed to the top job at the agency in early 2008.
He will step down Dec. 31.
“Jerry Hafen has proven to be a respected leader in law enforcement in Nevada and I am proud of his accomplishments as DPS Director,” Gibbons said. “Jerry has proven time and again that the safety of the citizens of Nevada is his top priority.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – A panel of private sector fiscal experts today projected the Nevada state general fund will have about $5.3 billion in tax revenues to spend on government services for the next two years.
The Nevada Economic Forum spent the day making projections for gaming, sales, business and other major tax revenues for use by Gov.-elect Brian Sandoval and the Legislature in crafting a balanced budget for the two years beginning July 1, 2011.

By Nevada News Bureau staff
University of Nevada, Reno President Milt Glick has signed the “Campus Compact,” joining a national coalition of more than 1,100 college and university presidents who have committed their campuses to encouraging service learning and civic engagement.

Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., today urged his colleagues to ensure that any Continuing Resolutions passed by the House include provisions to restore geothermal royalties to local counties.
The Office of Management and Budget has determined that under current funding legislation, local counties can no longer receive their share of geothermal royalties established under the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

The Carson Nugget Development Advisory Committee voted Monday night to forward the still-changing plans for the Carson City Center/Nugget Project to the Board of Supervisors.

The committee heard a presentation from P3 Development about the feasibility plan they said showed that the project was viable.

Christy McGill likes to use a gardening metaphor when she explains Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey's mission to reduce substance abuse and promote recovery.

“The Coalition is planting the seeds of hope that alcohol, tobacco and other drug abuse prevention works, treatment is effective, and people do recover,” said McGill, who serves as director.

Nineteen South Lake Tahoe area non-profit organizations got an early holiday surprise Thursday when more than $100,000 was delivered by LIVESTRONG and the American Century Championship.

The Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority board of directors announced the distribution of $102,377 in contributions on Thursday, Nov. 11.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Newly named state Senate Minority Leader Mike McGinness is adding his name to the list of Nevada policy makers who believe the state retirement system needs major change to head off a growing unfunded liability.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Nevada’s public employee retirement system will require increased contributions from the state and local governments next year to maintain the long-term financial health of the defined benefit plan, the board overseeing the program was told today.