The Nevada Legislature Building in Carson City on Tuesday, July 14, 2020.
Photo: David Calvert / The Nevada Independent
The money committees have signed off on a total $73.88 million budget to fund the legislative branch for the coming two years.
Legislative Counsel Director Brenda Erdoes told the joint money committee meeting that includes $1.96 million in federal stimulus cash.
Because of the federal cash infusion, the total is $1.46 million more than the current two-year budget. Without that money, she said the 2021-23 budget would have come in just shy of a half-million dollars less than the current budget.
Altogether that increases the permanent Legislative Counsel Bureau staff significantly. First, six positions originally set to be temporary session hires were converted to permanent positions.
According to Erdoes, lawmakers added three positions in the research division, one in general services, one lawyer and two technicians in legal and two in the audit division along with one technician in the legislative police and two in the fiscal division. That is a total of 12 new positions and making six temporary hires permanent — 18 in all.
Asked about how those additions look when most executive branch agencies have had their hiring frozen for the past year, she said those additions are overdue.
She said the two technicians in legal, a division she headed for more than 20 years, will relieve a bottleneck in processing bills that delays getting legislation to lawmakers so it can be acted on. She said the legislative police post works with the Internet, tracking the numerous threats to lawmakers and coordinates with other law enforcement agencies. Those threats have grown significantly in the past couple years.
Audit, she said, needs more auditors to keep up with legislator demands for agency audits that she said increase every year. Likewise, she said research is overloaded with requests for studies and research data.
The general services position, she said, is another person for the gift shop staff.
Over and above that, SB460 contains $561,975 to pay for five more positions — two security scanner positions and three positions “for the Senate” for personnel, travel and operating costs.
That brings the total number of added positions to 23.
The budget to run the 2021 legislative session itself was initially the standard $15 million appropriation from the General Fund. The Appropriations Act that sets out General Fund spending contains about $5.7 million over that budget.
Finally, lawmakers are in the final stages of approving a bill that appropriates $15.98 million for capital improvement, deferred maintenance and other projects. A good share of that is unavoidable because of the numerous leaks in the Legislature Building roof and cracks in the building’s stucco exterior causing water damage all the way from the fourth floor to the ground floor.
