Office of the Governor to submit budget amendments Monday

The Economic Forum met Monday to forecast and review the upcoming general fund revenues for the current fiscal year and upcoming biennium. Following the conclusion of the meeting, Ben Kieckhefer, Chief of Staff to Gov. Joe Lombardo, announced that the Office of the Governor would submit budget amendments to appropriately direct some of the forecasted revenue.

“Gov. Lombardo remains committed to fiscal responsibility and not overspending. Significant portions of the new revenue forecasted today are one-time funds, and our office believes that they should be treated as such,” Kieckhefer said. “With that in mind, our office will submit budget amendments to reflect Governor Lombardo’s commitment to his policy priorities and judicious spending.”

The Office of the Governor will submit budget amendments that include the following:

• $25 million in one-shot appropriations for Furniture, Fixtures, and Equipment to complete the Governor’s Capital Improvement Program for Executive Branch State Office Buildings
• $6 million in funding for SB 431, Governor Lombardo’s Government Modernization and Efficiency Act, which will go to the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, Department of Business and Industry, and the Division of Human Resource Management
• $3.3 million to fund the Office of School Choice
• Funding for charter school transportation
• Additional funding for critical social services infrastructure

Last week, Kieckhefer announced SB431 would assist with state employee management by eliminating the governor’s salary cap of 95% of the governor’s salary, bring an overhaul to Chapter 284 and prioritize the state employee hiring process and reduce the statewide vacancy rate. It would create more effective state fiscal management by increasing the Rainy Day Fund cap from 20% to 30%, create a Nevada Way Account up to 5% of the RDF to support the investment of significant new capital into Nevada and would remove the Interim Finance Committee from non-executive budget account grants, among other responsibilities.

SB431 also provides for the Governor’s Office management by appointing a chief information officer and chief information officer, and through workforce management, the bill reworks the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation into three divisions — Workforce Innovation, Reemployment Division and Workforce Rehabilitation Division — and creates a transition for the director to return in 2025. Finally, SB431 limits the governor’s emergency powers to 90 days and eliminates a number of boards and commissions.

The funding for the Office of School Choice in AB400, Lombardo’s Education Achievement, Opportunity and Accountability Act, is a part of his pledge to provide $2 billion in new K-12 funding to improve education in Nevada.