Stimulus money flowing to Nevada

While much has been said about the $2.2 billion the state of Nevada expects from the stimulus package, that isn't the whole story.

According to the state budget division and the office of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., that total doesn't include a significant amount of money going directly to local governments - primarily in Clark and Washoe counties.

Most of the money the state receives will be spent in Washoe and Clark counties, where 90 percent of those who qualify for Medicaid, welfare and unemployment benefits live.

State officials as well as Reid's office are trying to add up the total amount of money going to state and local governments in Nevada. One problem with the process is that the federal government is reporting some of those grants and awards geographically instead of according to which governmental entity receives and either sub-grants or uses the money.

That means all funding for Western Nevada College is reported as going to Carson City, not the university system.

And none of the money flowing directly to local governments is being reported to the state at this point.

Budget Director Andrew Clinger said his office won't begin seeing those numbers until after the local governments and state agencies make their first reports to the federal government in October.

Clinger said he expects the direct funding to be significant.

Even then, the picture won't be entirely clear because cities, counties and schools are all applying for competitive grants under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and those applications aren't being reported in any central location.

At the same time direct grants to local governments are not being reported to the state, federal ARRA managers aren't including any of the added unemployment benefit funding or money for entitlement programs such as Medicaid in local totals, which makes it look like Washoe and Clark counties in particular are being cheated.

Medicaid is to receive $402.6 million in additional federal support from ARRA. The welfare division is getting an additional $84 million for the food stamp program and $18 million for welfare payments on top of that. The Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund will receive a total of $595 million from ARRA. Transportation projects funded by ARRA total just over $201 million.

None of those funds are listed in local government ARRA totals.

But funding to school districts and university system campuses is listed in the local government totals, significantly inflating what those cities and counties appear to be getting.

Altogether, a total of more than $80 million in ARRA funding is listed for Reno, but that includes $63 million for UNR and Truckee Meadows Community College.

For Washoe County, Reid's office lists $45 million in total revenues including more than $16 million to Washoe School District. The county's largest project is $26 million in transportation money to build a freeway interchange at Meadowood Mall.

According to Washoe Finance Director John Sherman, about $2.3 million of the money Washoe has already received came directly from the federal government, not as a pass-through from the state.

Carson City is expecting more than $22 million but nearly half, $9.6 million, is for one project: To reconstruct and realign the capital's airport runway. When that amount and the $7.8 million going to Western Nevada College is deducted, the city is expecting just over $5 million, $3.4 million of which is for a water quality project.

The numbers are even larger in southern Nevada - more than $87 million apiece to Las Vegas and Clark County - but large portions of the funding go to higher education campuses and the school district within Clark's borders. Again, those totals don't include state entitlement or unemployment spending in Clark.

School districts are also big beneficiaries under ARRA. The state is passing some $70 million in funding for low-income schools and $67 million in special education grants through to school districts using the same population-based, per-pupil formulas it uses to build the state budget. Those numbers are in addition to the $139.6 million schools already received from ARRA.

The university system too receives federal education stabilization money - a projected $92 million each year of this biennium.