State licensing boards self-funded, so furloughs not required for employees

CARSON CITY -- Unpaid furloughs imposed on state workers don't apply to employees of hundreds of state licensing boards that are supported by industry fees.

An opinion by the Legislative Council Bureau says professional and occupational licensing boards are self-funded, and not part of the 2009-11 state budget.

To help balance the budget for the current biennium, the 2009 Legislature required state workers to take off without pay one day a month through June 30, 2011. The measure amounts to a 4.6 percent pay cut and was estimated to save the general fund about $300 million over the next two years.

But licensing boards are supported by fees paid by the industries they oversee, according to the opinion by Eileen O'Grady, chief deputy legislative counsel. The opinion also said the Legislature didn't include employees of such boards a the two-year suspension of merit pay increases.