The Legislative Interim Finance Committee on Thursday voted to spend more than a quarter billion dollars in federal funds on a laundry list of programs primarily to deal with impacts of the pandemic.
That includes adding some $30 million to the Medicaid program that is already the largest single budget in Nevada at more than $12 billion over the biennium.
Suzanne Bierman of the Medicaid program said because of the pandemic, there are now 852,673 Nevadans on Medicaid as of the end of November, up 33 percent since the start of the pandemic — about 10,450 more applicants every month.
Medicaid officials said that number is expected to go down once the pandemic is behind us but until then, Medicaid is essentially prohibited from cutting anyone off of benefits unless they commit fraud, voluntarily leave or move out of state.
The list of programs funded Thursday includes more than $113 million to expand the ability of state and local medical laboratories to handle the load caused by the pandemic.
Another expenditure approved is $38.5 million in federal immunization cooperative agreement funding to support vaccination efforts across Nevada.
The governor’s office pulled a $30 million item on community services in favor of a program to provide community services grants for access to programs serving those living in underserved communities. Those funds will be distributed through grants to nonprofit groups across the state. The state received more than applications for grants from nonprofits that have already submitted proposals to meet urgent needs in the state. Bailey Bortolin of the governor’s office assured lawmakers the grant proposals would be brought before the IFC for review and approval.
Some $16.7 million will support programs to attract, prepare, train and recruit teachers and other school officials.
Lawmakers approved $17.7 million to support and continue the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program that provides benefits to workers who don’t normally qualify for unemployment checks including the self-employed and gig workers.
They also approved spending $339,243 to hire the staff that will manage the federal money coming in to develop broadband services, especially in the rural areas. The federal government is going to provide $135 million to Nevada over the next five years to develop broadband services.
In addition, IFC approved spending $660,000 to support child mental health in the state through the Children’s Mobile Crisis Response Team.
