Moneysaving panel continues efforts

A panel formed to find ways of saving the state money is short on cash but still long on ideas.

Only about half of the privately funded Spending and Government Efficiency Commission's suggestions so far have become law or been adopted by Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons, who established the 14-member panel last year.

Bruce James, head of the SAGE Commission, said then that he hoped to get grants from foundations and other sources to cover costs estimated at $500,000 a year.

But fundraising fell short, and James used personal funds to cover some costs. He declined Wednesday to say how much has been raised and how much of his own money he has spent. He said only that fundraising will continue despite the poor economy.

"It's not going to be the slam dunk I thought it was to begin with," said James, adding that potential contributors must be convinced that the commission's ideas "will eventually save taxes."

Contributors may be more willing to kick in funds given the 2009 Legislature's decisions, opposed by Gibbons, to raise taxes by about $1 billion.

With the 2009 session behind it, the commission is focusing on submitting plans to Gibbons by December that include moneysaving steps the governor can take without lawmakers' approval.

The commission hopes to start work in 2010 on proposals requiring approval from the 2011 Legislature, James said.

Those proposals likely will include ways of consolidating some of the 170 agencies and programs in the executive branch of government, and a "sunset" plan that would shut down certain programs unless administrators can prove their worth.

"As long as we have issues that we feel confident are going to get the attention of the governor and the Legislature, we'll keep going," said James, the former U.S. printer and a self-made millionaire. "But at the point that we've exhausted ourselves, we'll call it quits."

The governor's order that created the commission expires in mid-2010. Unless revived by Gibbons, the panel would die next June, the same month the governor faces what's expected to be a tough Republican primary.

During the 2009 Legislature, SAGE Commission members saw lawmakers reject their suggestion to save about $19 million a year by closing down the old Nevada State Prison in Carson City. Legislators, however, enacted reforms in benefit programs for government employees and retirees.

The SAGE Commission was modeled after former President Reagan's Grace Commission, which in 1984 produced nearly 2,500 ideas for cutting government waste. That panel, headed by prominent businessman J. Peter Grace Jr., spent two years on producing its recommendations in its "war on waste."

The Grace Commission's goal was $1.9 trillion in savings by 2000.

That never occurred, although supporters of the effort have said it helped save taxpayers $687 billion over the years.