Cutback plans worry elderly

CARSON CITY -- Janice and Rafael Salazar live in a 600-square-foot mobile home in an old trailer park on the north end of Reno.

They manage to pay their bills and keep food in their stomachs on $1,580 a month in combined Social Security checks.

To them, the $300 check they received last month from the state's Senior Citizens Property Tax Rebate Program was a gift from God.

"We could not get along without it," said 72-year-old Janice Salazar. "That check allows us to pay our doctor bills and buy medicine."

Her 75-year-old husband is blind and lost his teeth because they could not find a dental assistance program. So Janice cooks him a lot of soup.

They don't go to the movies or casinos. They haven't taken a vacation since she retired in 2001 from the accounting department of a business.

"We are better off than a lot of other older people," she said. "I gave a homeless man a couple of jars of peanut butter. He needed it more than we do."

For now, they are better off than that homeless man. But Gov. Jim Gibbons' SAGE Commission on Dec. 30 recommended that the state Legislature shift the Property Tax Rebate Program to the counties.

The state would save $5.9 million a year by getting out of the business of handing out rebate checks to needy old folks, according to the Spending and Government Efficiency Commission, which Gibbons created to bolster government efficiency.

Instead, county governments, which receive far more property taxes than the state, should be handing out the tax rebates, the SAGE Commission reasoned.

But county governments also are suffering through hard times.

Jeff Fontaine, executive director of the Nevada Association of Counties, said counties do not have the money to fund the program under which senior citizens have received annual rebate checks since 1975.

Clark County can't afford to take over rebates that go to its senior citizens, according to county spokesman Dan Kulin.

"We already have a hiring freeze in place on nonpublic safety positions. Popular programs at UMC (University Medical Center) have been trimmed or cut altogether if the service is available elsewhere in the area, and other cost-cutting measures have been implemented," he said.

Kulin said the county assessor's office performs many of the administrative duties for the rebate program, but the county can't afford to cover the costs of rebate checks.

With Gibbons talking about cutting agency budgets by 34 percent, Nevadans might not be getting those annual gifts from God.

During the 2008 calendar year, 15,000 Nevada seniors, including renters, received rebate checks that ranged from $5 to $500. Most of the checks were about $300.

"I am absolutely concerned about the future of this program and these people," said Earleen Heinz, the state Division of Aging Services employee who has supervised the property tax rebate program for more than two decades.

"There is a lady in Reno who won't turn the heat above 60 degrees because she can't afford her gas bills. There are seniors in Las Vegas who won't use air conditioning in the summer because they can't afford their electric bills."

The Salazars are among the more fortunate seniors.

"A $900-a-month income is average for these people," Heinz said. "Some are living on $600 to $700 a month. These people do not have cable TV. A large number of them have given up their automobiles. So many say they live on peanut butter and macaroni and cheese."

Heinz, 73, retired Friday after a 37-year state government career. She won't be around during the 2009 Legislature when the fate of her program will be debated.

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said she is not going to participate in the destruction of the tax rebate program.

"This is critically necessary for these people. To take it away from them is a tax increase that I won't support," Buckley said.

What happens to the senior rebate program won't be known until May or June.

Democratic leaders intend to review spending by each state agency, set priorities and check how much money is available after the state Economic Forum meets on May 1. The forum, a group of five private business leaders, determines how much state government can spend.

Dan Burns, the governor's communications director, doesn't want seniors like the Salazars to panic over the possibility that the rebate program will end.

That is not going to happen, he said. But he said legislators need to discuss whether the rebate program should be taken over by the counties.

Burns said the rebate program was established in the 1970s, when state government largely was funded by property tax revenue.

It was designed to protect older people from losing their homes because of escalating property taxes. In the 1981 session, legislators and Gov. Bob List approved the so-called "tax shift." Property taxes were reduced and sales taxes increased. But the program remained intact.

State government receives 17 cents per $100 assessed value of property taxes. Counties and schools receive the bulk of property taxes.

The state share of property tax revenue goes entirely to cover debt payments.

"We don't have any property tax revenue to pay for the rebate program," Burns said.

Nonetheless, he said, money will be found to continue the rebate program.

"We don't want to scare these people," Burns said.

The Salazars already are scared.

"They always go after the older people, not the big, rich guys," Janice Salazar said. "They don't cut their salaries. If this program is gone, how are we going to pay for medicine?"

Contact reporter Ed Vogel at evogel @reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.