Gibbons' administration director clarifies statements

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Clarifying statements he made last week and Monday, Director of Administration Andrew Clinger said Tuesday he isn't suggesting the next governor raise taxes.

"What I said was it's very difficult - but not impossible - to balance the budget with just cuts or just taxes," he said.

Clinger said his office and the governor's staff are looking beyond those to all options to fix the state's projected $3 billion shortfall - an amount just short of half the total general fund budget this biennium.

He said the priorities of government study is examining what the state is constitutionally or legally mandated to do under federal law. He has said in the past that, with the size of the shortfall, the state may simply not be able to provide some of the services and programs it does now.

But he said the discussion has to reach beyond just state government to balance the budget.

"The only way to do that without raising taxes is to look not only at state government but local government."

That could mean shifting the responsibility for certain services now provided by the state to local government.

"We're still going through the priorities of government, still looking at services the state provides that might be better provided at the local level, looking at how local government is funded and the possibility of a shift," Clinger said.

He said any and all options are on the table - including changes to the local government collective bargaining statutes.

He said on Nevada Newsmakers Monday that lawmakers could "open up the collective bargaining statutes and make some changes there that could help sustain government moving forward." He said local government salaries he estimated at 30 percent above the private sector are unsustainable.

Per capita state spending in Nevada, he said, is last in the country but, when state and local spending are added together, "we end up in the middle of the pack compared to other states."