A joint panel of Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means was urged Monday to set aside $54 million in federal stimulus money to pay for a new computer system for the Employment Security Division.
Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson, D-Las Vegas, said Nevada’s unemployment rate spiked to double the U.S. rate because of the economic shutdown imposed by the pandemic — 29.5 percent.
He said unemployment’s existing computer system was simply unable to handle it.
Everyone was aware the existing system was antiquated and slow but before the pandemic, unemployment in the state was just 3.5 percent so spending millions for a new system wasn’t a priority.
The result was a backlog of a half million benefit claims after the state’s economy shut down in March 2020.
With a new system, “we won’t be in the situation where we are now,” Frierson said.
Elisa Cafferata, head of the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, said the new system would be a cloud-based system that is much easier and faster to update than the existing system.
She said the modern system will allow the state to “scale up quickly in a disaster.”
Frierson responded that the new system isn’t aimed at this current pandemic.
“The deliverables are for the next crisis,” he said
The bill identifies the $54 million in federal cash as available for the modernization project. The catch is that Nevada doesn’t actually have that money yet.
“We just don’t know when the money is going to be made available,” said Ways and Means Chair Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas.
But that amount will be included in the Authorizations Act so that when it is released, DETR can draw it down and hire contractors to create a new system for the state.
But Cafferata said the project must move forward as soon as possible because under the federal American Rescue Plan Act, the money must be used by Dec. 31, 2024 or returned to the federal government.
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