stimulus

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – There will be no fee increases of any kind in Gov.-elect Brian Sandoval’s budget when it is presented to lawmakers next year, Chief of Staff Heidi Gansert has confirmed.

The liberal blogs are all in a tizzy about how President Barack Obama "caved" to Republicans, agreeing to extend the Bush tax cuts for everyone, not just those making under $250,000 a year as he said he wanted.

Some are saying that Obama has been seriously damaged by this episode, looking weak and handing the narrative and momentum to the GOP, and that he might have a tough time getting reelected in 2012.

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
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.

One point I think you could get all sides of the debate over the Carson City Center/Nugget Project to agree on is that it's a very complicated deal.

But after spending a good deal of time looking at the newly released feasibility study for this project, it struck me that it's really not that complicated. If you strip away all the extraneous issues about the land leases and who is paying who, it comes down to a simple trade.

It boils down to this: the Carson Nugget is giving the city a piece of land to build a new library and public plaza. In return, the city is building the Nugget a new parking garage for its casino and future hotel/conference center.

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.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Nevada’s “actual� unemployment rate in the third quarter of 2010 increased to 22.3 percent from 21.5 percent in the second quarter, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – The question of how well the Gibbons administration has done in quickly and efficiently deploying Nevada’s share of stimulus dollars is difficult to quantify.

(Updated at 11:45 a.m. on Oct. 21, 2010, to include Gov. Gibbons comments.)
Questionable attack ads and the role of the federal government in job creation were the top issues in an energized debate Wednesday between Rep. Dina Titus and Republican challenger Joe Heck in one of the most closely watched house races of the Nov. 2 general election.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., is defending his decision to seek stimulus money on behalf of constituents and Nevada government entities despite voting against the massive funding measure in February 2009.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
A much-anticipated face-to-face debate between U.S. Sen. Harry Reid and his GOP opponent Sharron Angle on Thursday displayed stark contrasts between the two candidates but provoked little in the way of controversy.

Assemblyman John Hambrick this week said he will vie for chairmanship of the Republican Assembly Caucus against sitting chairman Pete Goicoechea if he wins reelection in November. He also expressed concerns about what he characterized as an abuse of power by some in Democratic leadership in Carson City.

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 – Nevada’s worst in the nation 14.3 percent unemployment rate for July does not even begin to tell the real story of the state’s dismal job situation, a state agency reported today.

The Carson Valley region, which includes Carson City, and the Stateline casino corridor at South Shore Lake Tahoe were the only two regions in Nevada that saw an increase rather than a decrease in gaming revenue for the month of June, the state's gaming control board reported today.
The casinos in the Carson City and Carson Valley area climbed by 5.1 percent over the fiscal year for June, followed by the Tahoe casinos, which jumped to 13.5 percent.

Sam Santillo will not be principal at Carson Middle School this year, after his arrest for DUI, and is "voluntarily being re-assigned to complete a variety of administrative tasks for the district,” according to a press release sent out by the Carson City School District.

The Nevada Appeal has the story about his job change. And here is our story and discussion about his DUI arrest, that also included driving with an open container and possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.

Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Nevada could find a way out of its $3 billion revenue shortfall next year without raising taxes, but only if the Legislature looks at restructuring the way the state and local governments provide and pay for services, the state’s top fiscal officer said yesterday.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – State governments across the country are facing budget deficits and a tough economy right now, but failure to get a handle on long-term liabilities, from unfunded pensions to subsidized health care for retired workers, could jeopardize any recovery, a fiscal expert said today.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – State Budget Director Andrew Clinger yesterday painted a bleak picture of Nevada’s next two-year spending plan, saying under current tax and spending levels every single program and agency except for education would have to be eliminated to balance the budget.

Last week we reported that the governor's office sent a letter to Nugget Project consultant Mark Lewis taking issue with certain parts of the feasibility study for moving three state agencies into the Carson City Center/Nugget Project.

The one big item missing in that story was the Meridian Business Advisors feasibility study itself, which we now have a copy of.

By Sean Whaley, Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Former Nevada governor and state Republican Committeeman Bob List yesterday called on Sen. Harry Reid to stop running a television ad claiming to have saved a school teacher’s job with federal stimulus funds.

CARSON CITY – The major funding gaps Nevada and other states have been forced to address in their current budgets will continue in the next cycle even as tax revenues finally begin to show signs of life, a national report released today says.
Signs of “delicate” revenue improvement will be offset by the loss of federal stimulus funds, posing ongoing challenges to lawmakers in 2011 and beyond, says the report from the National Conference of State Legislatures’ (NCSL).

CARSON CITY – Thousands of unemployed Nevadans will soon see their jobless benefits restored with final Congressional approval Thursday of a six-month extension of the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program.

By Nevada News Bureau Staff
CARSON CITY – Nevada’s unemployment rate hit another record high in June, reaching 14.2 percent as 193,000 residents looked for work, a state agency reported today.

CARSON CITY – Nevada’s unemployment rate hit another record high in June, reaching 14.2 percent as 193,000 residents looked for work, a state agency reported today.
The rate in Las Vegas hit 14.5 percent, up four-tenths of a percentage point from May.

CARSON CITY – New technology aimed both at cutting unnecessary vehicle emissions and saving tax dollars will soon be installed in the fleets of four Nevada law enforcement agencies using federal stimulus funds.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the Nevada Highway Patrol, the City of Henderson Police Department and the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office are purchasing 175 of the “idle reduction� units for $700,000.

CARSON CITY – Federal government efforts to create jobs through stimulus funding have expanded to encompass an urban Clark County tree planting effort and related activities, including tree care training for Spanish-speaking workers.
The Nevada Division of Forestry has received funding from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to make 2,500 trees available for free for planting by nonprofit organizations, government entities and others on urban public lands in Southern Nevada.