The Legislature on Saturday, May 22, 2021.
Photo: David Calvert / The Nevada Independent
Nevada has committed all but $4.4 million of the more than $831 million in coronavirus relief money the state has received.
The Interim Finance Committee on Tuesday approved four relatively small programs putting $22.16 million of remaining federal funds into projects. The lion’s share of that is $19.7 million into support for a system of contractors to provide monoclonal antibody treatments that can greatly reduce the severity of a COVID-19 infection.
But much discussion focused on the $1.97 million contract to provide intermediate treatment for youth with mental health issues in Clark County.
Susan Brown, director of the Governor’s Finance Office, said her office and agencies will be moving quickly to commit the remaining $4,389,872 because the money will expire at the end of the year and be reclaimed by the federal government.
“We have two weeks left to spend the funds,” she said.
If there is any uncommitted, Brown said it could be put into the Unemployment Trust Fund so Nevada doesn’t have to remit any money to the government.
The federal government has already approved using coronavirus relief fund cash for that purpose.
The total distributions approved this year come to $831,661,228 in 48 programs.
One of the largest amounts committed is $147.4 million to local governments outside of Clark County for costs they incurred because of the pandemic.
Altogether, lawmakers and the governor have approved more than $336 million to reimburse state agencies for money spent because of the pandemic.
Another $85.2 million has been sent to the statewide epidemiology laboratory to upgrade that operation and the contact tracing program. In addition, $35.4 million went to the Division of Emergency Management.
Another $49.2 million was earmarked to the state education department for education grants. That is just a small portion of the funding directed to education but most of that cash went directly to school districts and charter schools.
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