LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Gov. Joe Lombardo’s budget team presented an amended budget to the Nevada Legislature on Wednesday night, addressing a $335 million structural deficit in the initial proposal but prompting questions from lawmakers about the future.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Nichole Cannizzaro pressed Lombardo’s Chief of Staff Ryan Cherry on the intent behind adjustments presented to lawmakers. She looked specifically at $140 million in the budget for pre-K programs approved by the 2023 Legislature.
“What I am seeing is that operating expenditures, ongoing, have been reduced,” Cannizzaro said. Those expenditures are now classified as “one-shot” funding. And she wanted an explanation because she expects pre-K to be funded going forward.
It’s that way now, Cherry explained, to fix the problems with the budget as it was originally submitted.
“We have proposed a budget for you guys to meet the requirements of structurally balanced moving forward and to continue having a conversation on what that looks like throughout the Legislative Session moving forward. You have a commitment from us in the governor’s office to do that and figure out how we can move these forward,” Cherry said.
Some lawmakers appeared to be unconvinced that the structural deficit had truly been resolved. Even so, both sides were careful to avoid appearing confrontational.
Democratic Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager expressed concerns about leaving future lawmakers holding the bag.
“When you get into that situation when you’re in the second year of a biennium and you don’t have enough revenue to cover the operating expenditures, you’re really in a hard way the next year because you don’t have enough money forward and you’re going to be looking at cutting programs,” Yeager said.
“I don’t know if any of us are still going to be here when that happens, but I certainly don’t want to put a future Legislature in a position to have to cut those programs,” he said.
Democratic Assemblymember Sandra Jauregui wanted to make sure that revisions had been communicated to the people who would be losing money — the UNLV Medical School, for one.
Tiffany Greenameyer, the governor’s budget chief, said that staffing at departments and divisions across the state is lower than budgets provided for, and that will bring back a lot of money to the state. She said the agencies that are expected to lose money were informed.
Medicaid funds is another area where the state budgeted more initially than they will end up needing, officials said.
The initial budget came in $335 million short of being balanced. Changes made throughout the amended budget made it difficult to draw straight lines to account for that shortage.
One reason for that is a number of mistakes — including double-counting, in at least one case — in the initial budget.
Wednesday’s hearing continued past 7 p.m. and had not finished when this report was published.
