Cuts shouldn’t hurt the vulnerable

CARSON CITY -- The agency that provides assistance to Nevada's most vulnerable populations, from poor families to the elderly and the mentally ill, should be able to avoid cutting back on current client programs while implementing nearly $80 million in required budget cuts, an official told lawmakers on Tuesday.

Mike Willden, director of the Department of Health and Human Services, said a 4.5 percent-per-year spending reduction mandated by Gov. Jim Gibbons on Friday is an improvement over the 8 percent cuts that had been under consideration earlier this year.

The change, from $138 million in state general fund reductions to $78 million over two years, will ease the severity of cuts and should protect existing programs and services, he told the Legislative Committee on Health Care. Because many state dollars are matched with federal funds, the overall agency budget will get hit for about another $35 million to $40 million, Willden said.

Layoffs of state employees are also not anticipated at the lower cut levels, he said.

"The last thing I want to do is harm the existing level of client services," Willden said. "We try to take the things that are the least harmful."

Two program areas, child welfare and juvenile justice, are exempted from any cuts.

Even with the reduced spending, agency general fund support will grow by $200 million in the current budget, to $1.85 billion from $1.65 billion in the previous budget.

Willden said he is listening to concerns being voiced by members of the public about the cuts. No one, not the governor or anyone else, wants to make cuts, he said.

But Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, the chairwoman of the legislative panel, said cuts to programs are still likely to be significant. There aren't enough one-time appropriations for such items as computers, or enough building projects, to reach the new target, she said.

"We can't forget that people's lives are at stake here," Leslie said. "People are anxious, they've got to know. Are they going to be stuck in a nursing home or can they get out and get home and get the services they need?

"Are the autistic children going to be able to get the services they need?" she said.

The legislative hearing rooms, both in the capital and in Las Vegas, were filled with people interested in more details about where the cuts will be made.

But despite requests from lawmakers, Willden said he could not provide detailed information on what cuts will be implemented. The cut details will be forwarded to the governor by Friday. An announcement on the specifics of the cuts is expected early next month.

Details of the possible cuts are not being released because they are viewed by Gibbons as working documents and not public records.

Keeping many non-critical vacant jobs unfilled is expected to generate a lot of the savings in the agency. But furloughs of state employees and delays in the expansion of some programs approved by the Legislature are also on the table, Willden said.

The agency categorized the potential cuts into five levels, with levels four and five being the most severe.

As a result of the decision by Gibbons to spread smaller cuts across virtually all agencies and programs, "we will not be dabbling too much in level four and five cuts," Willden said.

Gibbons ordered 4.5 percent cuts per year across the board to generate $284 million in savings to the $6.8 billion budget approved by the Legislature. Revenues are expected to come in about $440 million short over the next two years.

Gibbons said the state's rainy day fund will be used to cover any shortfall not made up in the spending reductions and other cuts to capital improvements or one-time expenditures.

Despite the reduction in cuts to the health agency, Sen. Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, said Gibbons is sending a terrible message with the across-the-board cuts, which includes $96 million in reductions to public education.

"We're not ahead of the game at all despite what some would want to put out there," he said. "The reality is this is like the Grinch that stole Christmas really."

Gibbons made the cuts with little input from lawmakers or the public, Horsford said.

He called the decision to reduce human service cuts by expanding cuts to public education, "totally outrageous."

Others used the legislative meeting to speak out against the cuts.

Jan Gilbert, a lobbyist for the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, said the group opposes all cuts to services, including public education. There are alternatives to cutting programs that help people, she said.

Once cuts in human services are made, it is always tough to get them restored when tax revenues recover, Gilbert said.

"Human services are very slow to recover," she said. "I'm tired of Nevada always being the last in everything. I am sick of it."

Michelle Estrada, a registered nurse representing SEIU Nevada nurses and health care workers, also spoke against the cuts, saying delaying capital projects and greater use of the rainy day fund should be the answer to getting the state through its current financial problems.

"It is patients and health care professionals who will bear the burden of overcrowded emergency rooms and delayed treatments when the funding for public health programs are no longer available," she said.

Sen. Maurice Washington, R-Sparks, said the Legislature and governor want to reach out and help Nevada's vulnerable residents. But the governor has to ensure the state lives within its means, he said.

"We're going to do everything within our power to make sure those individuals are taken care of," Washington said. "But the state can't be everything to everybody."