'Pork' projects escape cuts

Amid all the furor over budget cuts, it went practically unnoticed that one category of funding approved by the 2007 Legislature completely escaped the 4.5 percent reductions.

Those 43 projects outside the state budget that are derisively referred to as "legislative pork" didn't lose a dime.

It's not that the governor's office and lawmakers weren't aware of them. For a couple of reasons, they found there was simply no way to touch that $30.86 million.

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said that was one of the first things she asked about when budget cuts were announced.

Buckley and a number of other lawmakers objected to some of those funding proposals during the legislative session - sought by some of Nevada's wealthy and powerful players - which they described as "rich guy charities."

"I understood that almost all that money had already been expended and that was the reason," said Buckley.

That is probably true of the 26 grants on the list, totaling $19.6 million that were for expenditure in Fiscal Year 2007. The budget office confirmed those appropriations were claimed almost immediately after the close of the Legislature in June.

For the remaining $11.26 million appropriated for this fiscal year and next, the issue was a legal bind. According to Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, those appropriations are outside the state budget.

"If you don't go through a state agency, there's no legal authority to cut them," he said.

He said the issue was discussed and the conclusion was that the governor's office couldn't cut those appropriations and, in fact, not even the Interim Finance Committee could do so.

"There's no way short of a (special) legislative session to make those cuts," Raggio said.

Asked whether lawmakers should consider providing some way to cut those kinds of one-shot appropriations in the future, he said it would be a good idea to at least look into that.

Buckley said the issue "needs to be examined."

But she said lawmakers couldn't make cuts, for example, if someone relied on the money being there and was in the middle of a construction project.

Most of money appropriated to the so-called "rich guy charities" had already been released and, probably, committed to projects. That includes the total $4.25 million to Opportunity Village sought by longtime political consultant Sig Rogich, the $3 million for the Lou Ruvo Brain Institute sought by the owner of Southern Wine and Spirits and the $2 million for developer Harvey Whittemore's Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease.

Those amounts, however, are all much smaller than the original requests, which were $12 million by Rogich, $10 million for Ruvo's project and $3.5 million for Whittemore's.

The largest appropriations on the list went to the Nevada Cancer Institute - a total of $10 million over the fiscal 2007-09 period. That money was to build additional lab and clinical space for research and to purchase equipment, conduct outreach and education and implement preventative health strategies.

In Carson City, the list includes $50,000 to plan and design the proposed Chinese Workers' Museum of America and $500,000 for economic development grants in rural counties.

There is money for a children's museum in both Northern and Southern Nevada as well as $1 million for the Nevada Alliance of Boys and Girls Clubs.

There are a number of grants designed to help the disabled, medical programs for the indigent, a program to help inmates return successfully to society, rape victims and child assault prevention as well as for the organizations dedicated to helping the mentally disabled in north and south.

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