state agencies

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – State Controller Kim Wallin is seeking new authority from the Nevada Legislature to collect from those who owe the state money.

CARSON CITY – Speaker Pro Tempore Debbie Smith, D-Sparks, wants better reporting on state contracts with consultants.
She said an audit last December proved that lax reporting requirements had allowed many consultants to profit from taxpayers as they escaped legislative scrutiny.
She asked the auditing staff how she could improve oversight of consultants. They recommended removing references to consultants in favor of defining “contract” broadly. So that is what Smith wrote into her bill.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Gov. Brian Sandoval will propose a change to the retirement system for new state employees that would reduce their current pension benefits by one half and cut the long-term liability for taxpayers by the same amount, his chief of staff said today.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – State senator Mo Denis, D-Las Vegas, has had enough of percentages.
Just the numbers, please, was his basic request at a Senate Finance committee meeting this past week as various state agencies delivered their budget reports.

I’ve been reading the BurnCards site for a while. It’s one of a thriving community of blogs that have sprung up around Reno. I don’t write about Reno much on this site, because there’s plenty of people doing that, but this article by Ken Manz really caught my eye.

By the California Department of Fish and Game
From nuisance black bears and increasing salmon numbers to automated license sales and poaching arrests, 2010 was a busy year for the California Department of Fish and Game.

A popular new reality show airing on the National Geographic Channel, “Wild Justice,” is capturing some of the department’s doings, but far more happens behind the scenes.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – For Gov. Brian Sandoval, every penny counts as he tries to balance a two-year state budget with drastically reduced tax revenues.
At the Board of Examiners meeting today, Sandoval was able to eliminate a new vehicle purchase worth about $40,000 for the state dignitary protection program by finding a suitable vehicle in the state motor pool to fit the bill.

CARSON CITY – They speak of limbs hacked off, death and guts.
In a war of words, critics of Gov. Brian Sandoval’s $5.8 billion budget have lambasted his proposed cuts to K-12, higher education and health and human services.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – While there has been a lot of criticism directed at the details of Gov. Brian Sandoval’s proposed spending plan, there is acclaim for his development of a new budgeting process designed to ensure state agencies get results with taxpayer dollars.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – They have names like the Landscape Architecture Board, the Nevada Arts Council and the Commission on Mineral Resources, and there are more than 180 of them functioning within Nevada state government.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
RENO – When Gov. Brian Sandoval’s staff reduced funding for the Sierra Regional Center in the governor’s proposed budget, he may not have known what that would mean to the Stangelands.

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.

CARSON CITY – Nevada’s Colorado River Commission is one of the state agencies cited in a recent legislative audit as paying some of the highest salaries to former state employees working as contractors, the Nevada News Bureau has learned.
Information obtained as a result of a public records request shows two former state employees, James Davenport and Sara Price, both attorneys, have collectively earned over half a million dollars in salaries as contractors for the agency over the past three and a half years.

CARSON CITY – In the wake of a legislative audit critical of state agency contracting practices with current and former employees, the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has posted its information online.
Bob Conrad, public information officer for the department, said the contract information was placed on the agency’s website on Dec. 29.

Marine Sgt. Justin Block and Santa load toy barrels Friday morning, Dec. 17, 2010, as part of the Toys for Tots toy drive at the Capitol in Carson City, Nev. Workers at more than a dozen state agencies participated in the 8th annual toy drive coordinated by the Capitol Police.

Toys for Tots Coordinator Joyce Buckingham says they'll be helping more than 7,000 kids in Carson, Douglas, Lyon and Storey counties and that more toys and donations are still needed. For more information, go to www.ToysForTots.org and choose the Carson City link.
Photo by Cathleen Allison/NevadaPhotoSource.com

To view more of Allison's photographs click here.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Secretary of State Ross Miller said today an audit released last week examining current and former state employees winning contracts with state agencies contained “alarming findings.”

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – When it comes to the budget problems looming for many states over the next two years, a report released this week by the National Conference of State Legislatures makes one point very clear: Nevada is No. 1, and not in a good way.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau

I have been been going over the Nugget Project feasibility report this morning, tying to digest the details.

Overall, it really isn't much different than what was presented to the citizens committee back in September. The one exception is that P3 Development seems to think that building a hotel is more feasible now, following another study showing that it is.

I was going through old notes this morning, and found some scribbling I'd done about the old vacant Kmart on North Carson Street, sitting next to a printout of the Meridian Report on the feasibility of the state office portion of the Nugget Project.

It was like one of those old commercials for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, where the chocolate and the peanut butter collide to make something pretty cool.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Gov.-elect Brian Sandoval said today he will make it a priority as governor to encourage businesses to relocate to Nevada from neighboring states where taxes have been raised to deal with the economic slowdown.

Offsite Data Depot Adds Secure, Climate-Controlled Vault Storage to Roster of Services for Northern Nevada Businesses

Monday's Advisory Committee Meeting included a lot of new details about the Nugget Project that we are still looking through.

For those who haven't seen the presentation by P3 Development, you can read it here.

I think they made the best pitch for this project so far, and showed that this somewhat scaled-down version is at least close to being feasible, given the revenue constraints requested by members of the Board of Supervisors.

The developer of the Carson City Center/Nugget Project tonight presented an update on the progress made so far on a final plan to present to the city for approval.

The meeting of the Nugget Project Advisory Committee was supposed to see the final plans tonight, but those plans have been delayed by legal and financial issues, according to City Manager Larry Werner.

What they did get was an overview of where the project stands right now, along with a look at some numbers that could determine its feasibility.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau

Carson Nugget president Steve Neighbors was on hand to discuss some of the details of the Carson City Center aka Nugget Project at the Nevada Business Connections breakfast this morning at the Gold Dust West.

(You can read all the background materials on the project here. )

Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Nevada state agencies and public education have submitted budgets calling for nearly $8 billion in spending for the upcoming two years, about $3 billion more than what is expected to be available with current tax revenues.

By Nevada News Bureau staff
CARSON CITY – Nevada State Controller Kim Wallin today rolled out a new and improved public website that includes a list of businesses and individuals who owe money to the state and the amount they owe.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – A plan released today by Democrat governor candidate Rory Reid on how to balance the Nevada state budget without raising taxes received some praise from a free market think tank even though many questions remain, including whether the proposal includes an overly optimistic prediction of future tax revenue growth.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – The Nevada state Board of Finance today voted to make it easier for those who owe money to the state to pay their debts.