Clinger: Youth camp funding bill would cost millions

Budget Director Andrew Clinger said Wednesday that a bill restructuring funding for three regional youth camps would cost the state $3 million during the biennium. It also attempts to take control over those budgets away from the governor.

Contrary to District Judge David Gamble's testimony that SB85 is financially neutral, it would dramatically increase state funding for the largest of those camps, Spring Mountain in Las Vegas, Clinger said. State funding per bed per day would increase from $14 to $50 at that center.

It also would mandate the funding for all three camps be increased each budget cycle by at least the inflation amount.

In addition to the 100 beds at Spring Mountain, there are 40 beds for juvenile boys at China Spring in Douglas County and 24 beds for girls at Aurora Pines next door to China Spring.

Clinger said at a rate of $50.93 per bed per day, the bill would require the state to add $2.67 million to the Spring Mountain biennial budget and about $180,000 to the Aurora Pines budget. He said the surprise is that because of the way the bill is written, it would cut a total of some $42,000 out of the state's contribution to China Spring during the biennium. Altogether, he said it would take about $3 million in General Fund cash to pay for the legislation.

Gamble told the Senate Finance Committee one of the purposes of the bill is to stabilize funding for the youth camps, which he said save the state a lot of money by preventing medium-level juvenile offenders from going into the state's juvenile prison system.

"Eighty percent of the boys and girls who enter these camps never go into state care," he said.

The committee took no action on SB85.