Lawmakers and Governor at odds over budget plans

Lawmakers, Governor at Odds Over Budget Plan
By Sean Whaley | 7:07 pm February 22nd, 2010
CARSON CITY – Gov. Jim Gibbons is sticking with much of his plan on how to find $890 million to balance the state budget even as lawmakers continue to question the viability of some elements, including $50 million in additional mining revenues and $30 million from an automobile insurance verification program using highway cameras.
The plan was altered today after several new revenue sources were identified that allowed Gibbons to eliminate a proposed $35.7 million reduction in public teacher salaries.
But Robin Reedy, chief of staff to Gibbons, said the vast majority of the governor’s plan remains intact as the way to balance the budget.
“We’ve worked up through Saturday with various members of the Legislature,” she said after making comments to the Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee. “We have yet to see a list from them of what is good so we’ve not taken anything off ours.”
One other change to Gibbons’ plan provoked some strong exchanges between Reedy and lawmakers. Taken off the table are three fee increases initially proposed by Gibbons: $1.1 million in state park hikes, $550,000 for the cost of restaurant inspections and $337,000 to obtain state vital records.
Some lawmakers questioned the removal of the fee increases, including Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, who said the proposals were appropriate to free up general fund money to offset 10 percent cuts to education and state agencies.
Buckley said the Gibbons administration appears to be inconsistent on the issue of fees, with support for some increases but opposition to others, and suggested politics are at play.
“The governor gets beat up on the campaign trail or from the right wing about the mining deductions and all of a sudden we see vital records and consumer health fees being yanked,” Buckley said.
Reedy said the governor’s tax and fee policies are not based on politics.
“If the people who are being assessed agree to the fee or the tax, he will do it,” she said.”I think that is consistent.”
The questioning about the change of course on the fees also prompted Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, to forcefully tell Reedy that he would direct any questions to administration officials he believed were appropriate.
The comment came after Reedy suggested that the repeated questioning on the governor’s tax and fee policy was not productive.
The exchanges came as the 26th special session of the Nevada Legislature is set to being tomorrow to find ways to close the nearly $990 million gap in the current two-year budget.
The proposal to use traffic cameras to identify uninsured drivers to generate $30 million in the second year of the budget was called “wacky” by Buckley.
Raggio continued to question the constitutionality of the proposal to reduce the allowable deductions on the net proceeds of minerals tax to generate $50 million to the state. If the proposals cannot be accomplished or are rejected by the Legislative majority there is at least an $80 million hole in Gibbons’ budget balancing plan.
Beginning the special session without firm agreement could mean for several days of discussions before the budget is finally balanced.
Some lawmakers also questioned the claim made by Gibbons today that when all funding for public education is counted, including local support, the actual cut for the state’s schools is only 2.4 percent. The comment came in a press release from Gibbons announcing the identification of enough new revenues to eliminate his proposed 1.75 percent teacher pay cut.
The 10 percent cut being proposed by Gibbons for public education is only on the state share of the tax support.
Some lawmakers suggested the change to include local funding would only confuse and mislead the public.
But Reedy said calling the reduction to public education a 10 percent cut was disingenuous and a “scare tactic.”