30 Carson City employees likely to be laid off

Carson City will likely lay off about 30 people in the next few months due to a $7.9 million budget deficit.

"We thought it would only be about $4.5 million," said City Manager Larry Werner, "but we're still seeing 15 percent to 16 percent sales tax revenue drops."

Adding to the problem, he said, were higher expenses mainly from contracts which came in higher than expected.

"They were still within the contract amounts, but more than we anticipated," he said.

"All this added $3.5 million to the deficit," Werner said.

Layoffs could start as early as May, but no later than July 1, start of the fiscal year, he said.

"It's tough. If we can avoid it, we will, but it doesn't look good. We dodged the bullet for awhile, but now it has caught up with us," Werner said.

In January, Carson City department heads, officials and employee association leaders drafted a list of 142 items that could be cut to help balance the budget for the 2010-11 fiscal year.

Finance Director Nick Providenti and Werner prepared the list based on a 10 percent reduction after tax revenues indicated the city would not likely be able to operate at its current levels.

Although officials had held out hope that they would only need to implement cuts down to item 89 of the list, it now is clear that all 142 items will be slashed, he said.

The sheriff's and fire departments make up 45-50 percent of expenditures.

Werner said he will take the proposed cuts to the board of supervisors March 18 for direction.