state budget

With less than two weeks left in the regular 2015 Nevada Legislative session, the compromise tax plan designed to balance the state budget could become public today, despite not getting a hearing until Thursday.Gov. B...

A combination of flat projections for state General Fund revenues and the impact of tax credits given to Tesla, film companies and others blew a near $170 million hole in the proposed Nevada state budget on...

A proposed no-new-taxes state budget plan was outlined today by a group of Republicans who called it a “living-within-our-means proposal.” The plan calls for spending ......

State Treasurer Dan Schwartz faced a barrage of questions and criticism over his formulation of an “alternative” state budget today in Carson City....

Attorney General Adam Laxalt said Thursday that he opposes Gov. Brian Sandoval's plan to raise taxes to fund education with a graduated business license fee.
Laxalt, who was not pressed on his knowledge of the $438 million plan or the state budget, made the comments on a Reno radio program, putting ...

Putting together a budget for the state of Nevada isn’t so easy after all....

After almost two months of tooth gnashing and drama surrounding whether Nevada needs more tax revenue to run state government, the 2015 Legislature begins the process of figuring that out on Monday. The tr...

After almost two months of tooth gnashing and drama surrounding whether Nevada needs more tax revenue to run state government, the 2015 Legislature begins the process of figuring that out on Monday. The tr...

Gov. Brian Sandoval warned Friday that if Nevada lawmakers don’t extend sun-setting taxes and approve new tax revenue the state could face across-...

Julia Teska has been appointed by Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval as state budget director replacing Jeff Mohlenkamp who will be leaving April 4. Teska is currently the deputy superintendent for Business and Support Services at the Department of Education.

Enrollment at both rural campuses of Western Nevada College has increased this fall, after six years of state budget cuts that drastically reduced programs and available classes.

Full-time equivalent enrollment, which measures the number of credits a student takes and is a key factor in determining state funding levels, rose 4 percent at the Fallon campus to 415 and 3 percent at the Douglas campus to 371. At the Carson City campus, full-time equivalent headcount rose by 2 percent, indicating that individual students are enrolling in more credits.

The tedious and sometimes politically explosive process of crafting the state budget will dominate both legislative houses and headlines over the next 120 days.
But as lawmakers slog through the decisions about what to fund, expect a number of socially contentious issues to pull at their attention.

CARSON CITY – Nevada Supreme Court Justice James Hardesty said today that the country will not have success in reducing the tragic type of shooting incident that occurred Friday in Connecticut without providing more mental health support.

CARSON CITY – Gov. Brian Sandoval today released budget data that had been sought by state lawmakers after a weeks-long disagreement over whether the information was public.

As a matter of law, the Nevada state constitution requires a balanced budget. As a matter of economic law and history, raising taxes will never balance a budget. It never has and never will. If a budget cannot be balanced without tax increases, it will never be balanced afterwards. The reason is simple, raising taxes decreases tax revenues and strangles growth. Many Nevada taxpayers believe that our legislators seek to redistribute our tax dollars to buy votes or political power rather than serve the public good.

CARSON CITY – The impacts of the so-called “fiscal cliff” on Nevada’s state budget would likely be less significant than for many other states because of our lower dependence on federal spending, according to an analysis by the Pew Center on the States.

CARSON CITY – Gov. Brian Sandoval said today his administration has fully complied with a requirement in state law to provide preliminary state budget data to lawmakers and their staff.

“The agency requests have been presented to the Legislature in accordance with the law,” he said. “I don’t see any problems.”

CARSON CITY – A dispute has emerged between Gov. Brian Sandoval and the Legislature over what information in the initial state agency request budget should be made available to legislative staff and the public.

At a meeting of the Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee today, state Budget Director Jeff Mohlenkamp was asked about what is considered by legislative staff to be a departure from past practice regarding the budget information provided to legislative fiscal staff and the public.

CARSON CITY – Nevada’s next two-year general fund budget would grow by $279 million to $6.46 billion based on the initial spending requests submitted by state agencies, information released today by the Budget Division shows.

CARSON CITY – Gov. Brian Sandoval said today that there are a large number of variables in play as he prepares his 2013-15 budget, including who wins the presidential election on Nov. 6.

Sandoval said a decision on whether to expand Nevada’s Medicaid program to cover newly eligible residents under the Affordable Care Act will wait for that result, since Gov. Mitt Romney has said he wants to repeal the law.

CARSON CITY – Nevada is among the states with the highest amount of government debt per capita at $14,949, according to a new report from State Budget Solutions (SBS), a non-partisan advocate for state budget reform.

The level of debt put Nevada at 37^th highest among the states.

CARSON CITY – Nevada voters will determine the fate of only one statewide measure in the Nov. 6 general election, but the proposal put on the ballot by the Legislature is somewhat controversial.

CARSON CITY – A state panel Tuesday recommended a $100 million capital construction plan to Gov. Brian Sandoval for the next two years, but finding funding for the many desperately needed maintenance projects is still a work in progress.

Sandoval will review the list and potentially make some revisions before submitting it to the 2013 Legislature as part of his overall budget.

Of the total construction budget, about $80 million will require some form of state funding.

CARSON CITY – The state Board of Examiners today voted to settle a legal dispute with Washoe County over local tax revenue taken by the 2009 Legislature to balance the state budget.

The settlement provides an immediate payment of $1.25 million to the county, with another $6 million being allocated later for major road maintenance projects. As part of the agreement, the road projects will be moved up in the state’s funding priorities.

CARSON CITY – The state Board of Examiners on Tuesday will consider settling a dispute with Washoe County over $21.5 million in local property tax revenue taken by the 2009 Legislature to balance the state budget.

The proposed settlement would provide an immediate payment of $1.25 million to the county, with another $6 million being allocated later for major road maintenance projects.

CARSON CITY – Nevada recorded two straight years of increases in taxable sales through June, with a statewide gain of 7.9 percent over June 2011, the state Department of Taxation reported today.

Taxable sales totaled $3.9 billion in June compared to $3.6 billion in June 2011. For the 2012 fiscal year, taxable sales rose 7.6 percent over 2011.

Clark County taxable sales were up 8.9 percent in June and Washoe County saw a 3 percent gain.

CARSON CITY – A state panel was told today that for yet another two-year state budget, there will be virtually no money available from property tax revenues for capital construction projects.

The state Public Works Board heard the disappointing news today as it began a two-day review of projects being sought by state agencies ranging from the Department of Corrections to Tourism and Cultural Affairs.

CARSON CITY – State Treasurer Kate Marshall today announced a record year for her office’s Unclaimed Property Division, with nearly $33 million in property returned to its rightful owners in Fiscal Year 2012.

CARSON CITY – Nevada ranks 40^th among the states for the amount of energy consumed per person, according to the nonprofit website EnergyTrends.org.

The state rankings were released on Wednesday and show Nevadans consumed 239 million Btu per capita in 2010 compared to 303 Btu per capita in 2007.

CARSON CITY – Nevada officials are busy preparing cost and enrollment estimates so Gov. Brian Sandoval will have reliable information before deciding whether to expand Medicaid following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month upholding much of the Affordable Care Act.