Lawmakers voted Saturday to restore nearly 500 positions that were originally held vacant because of budget cuts ordered last summer.
The bulk of them are the 487 full-time positions held vacant or eliminated within the Nevada System of Higher Education.
Sen. Heidi Seevers Gansert, R-Reno, applauded the decision. She had earlier complained that while projected increases in state revenues and federal stimulus dollars were being funneled into budgets including Medicaid and K-12, the university system wasn’t being treated the same and hadn’t received additional money to restore cuts. She said this decision fixes that inequity.
The positions will be restored using a total of $117.8 million in American Rescue Plan Act dollars over the biennium.
In addition, the joint Senate Finance/Assembly Way and Means committee voted to put $39 million in stimulus funding into restoring positions in state government.
Between the two decisions, that commits a total of $66.3 million in 2022 and $54.1 million in 2023 to restoring positions held vacant because of the pandemic induced economic slump.
The funding also enables both NSHE and the state to begin filling those positions July 1 instead of October 1.
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