Assembly introduces $74.5M in bills

The Nevada Assembly on Tuesday introduced 25 bills requiring appropriations, all of the money either included in the governor’s recommended budget or supplemental funding to make up for shortfalls in several agencies.

Altogether, they total $74,544,804.

One of the largest is Assembly Bill 516 that puts $15 million in the hands of the Interim Finance Committee to cover costs of implementing Marsy’s Law. That voter-approved measure puts victims rights into the state constitution. The fiscal impact, however, comes primarily from the provision that mandates restitution be paid first, ahead of any other use of court fines and fees the state collects. The money will be put with IFC because no one is certain how much Marsy’s Law will impact those administrative fees.

The largest single appropriation is $16.25 million in AB519 to replenish the state’s Contingency Fund that pays for unanticipated costs such as wildfire suppression.

The bills also contain more than $16.2 million in new vehicles needed by various state agencies.

Several other measures include large appropriations to replace and update various computer systems including $1.94 million for the Governor’s Finance Office and Human Resources systems plus $500,000 for a system to keep track of Capital Improvement Projects. Upgrading the state budget system will add another $1.4 million to computer costs.

The Department of Corrections is in the budget for $1,8 million to buy an offender tracking system.

Other bills include the funding needed to cover shortfalls in the current fiscal year, the largest of which is the utilities shortfall of $1.48 million in the Department of Corrections.

Finally, DMV needs $87,000 and the Secretary of State’s office $7,665 to implement the voter-approved automatic voter registration program.

All 25 measures were referred to the Ways and Means Committee.