Emergencies Contingency Fund will be broke in June

A pot of money state government uses to pay for emergencies such as wildfires will be essentially empty once lawmakers hand out funding requests at their June 13 meeting.

The situation has state officials looking to tap another source of funding: the state's $9.2 million Disaster Relief Fund.

That fund can be used to pay a state agency for expenses incurred because of certain specific kinds of disaster - including emergency measures to save lives and ensure public safety, said Director of Administration Andrew Clinger.

He said he believes that would include a wildland fire, and has asked the Attorney General's Office for a ruling as soon as possible.

"I'm not sure we didn't use some of that money two years ago for the (Federal Emergency Management Agency) match for the Waterfall fire," he said.

Clinger said the unknown factor is the fire season. If the large mass of grass and brush growing because of a wet winter and spring turns to tinder by July, the season could be very expensive. For example, Carson City's Waterfall fire in 2004 cost more than $8 million to fight.

The normal source of funding, the Interim Finance Committee's contingency fund, will likely be dried up by requests, leaving as little as $16,000.

There was $3.3 million in the fund as of Monday. But expected to drain it are a Department of Corrections request for $1.4 million for increased utility costs; a $1.5 million request to cover special legal costs, public defender costs and a host of other costs; $360,000 for the Attorney General's Office; and a $24,000 request from the Department of Cultural Affairs.

The 2005 Legislature put $12 million put in the Contingency Fund to handle unanticipated costs during the interim. Much larger amounts than anticipated were consumed by rising utility bills and, especially for the Nevada Highway Patrol, skyrocketing gasoline prices.

• Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.