Carson City can absorb state tax grab

Carson City will survive losing $250,000 in funds that had been used to cover indigent medical patients, according to the city.

A joint Senate-Assembly budget subcommittee voted Monday to use the $50 million Indigent Accident Fund supported by counties to balance the state's budget.

Counties pay 2.5 cents per $100 of assessed value in property taxes to the state fund to cover the medical bills of uninsured or underinsured people who get in vehicle accidents.

Carson City prepared next fiscal year's budget expecting the state would take the accident fund money, said City Manager Larry Werner. The city might get federal stimulus funds to cover the loss, but it doesn't need the money for a balanced budget, he said.

"No one likes to lose money but we all have to give someplace," Werner said.

The city doesn't expect to get large medical bills that will add up to more than $250,000 and disrupt its budget, he said. The city also has an insurance fund to help cover accidents, he said.

The state's decision won't hurt Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center, said Cheri Glockner, a hospital representative.

Most serious accident patients go to Renown Medical Center in Reno, so the Carson hospital won't have to deal with the billing, she said.

Not all counties can absorb the costs as easily as Carson city.

Lyon County commissioners will have to decide what to do if the Legislature passes the decision into law, said County Comptroller Josh Foli.

The loss would cost the county $400,000 a year, about 1.5 percent of the county's $30 million general fund, he said.

Foli said he doesn't want to speculate too soon about what the county will have to do if it loses money.

"I don't even want to go into that at this point," he said.

County Manager Dennis Stark said the loss would definitely hurt the county.

"We got kind of short-changed on that, didn't we?" he said.

The Legislature passed laws in 1983 and 1985 to create the indigent fund, according to the Nevada Association of Counties. The hospitals bill the county in which the accident occurred for non-residents, or the patient's home county for residents.