Legislators, governor’s team in spat over restored funds

CARSON CITY — What was supposed to be a review of health and human services budget cuts Wednesday was as much a number-crunching session as a turf war over just who has final say over how money will be spent.

The state Senate gathered as a Committee of the Whole to review a breakdown of the governor’s proposed budget for the biennium, one day after Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval’s administration announced it would restore
$49.4 million to the budget.

The found money was the result of two forces: an increase in federal matching funds because of Nevada’s poor economic status and a discovery of overbilling by two group homes.

Although Sandoval’s team outlined how the money could be allocated — such as returning funding to elder protective services and restoring 75 percent of the funding for the Kinship Care Program — Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, told Sandoval’s chief of staff, Heidi Gansert, and fellow lawmakers to hold off on thinking the allocations are a done deal.

“Those decisions have not been made. They are recommendations,” he said.

Gansert stood firm, presenting the proposed distributions as definitive and battled claims that the recommended allocations were aimed to court votes in the rural counties.

Gansert said the majority of add-backs to the autism programs and elder care would benefit Washoe and Clark counties, as would money that was put back to support community triage centers, which treat mental health and substance abuse patients.

Also on the hot list of subjects: juvenile justice programs.

Under the governor’s proposed budget, counties would have to fund the mental health courts, which provide a voluntary alternative to jail time for offenders suffering from mental illness.

Retired Judge Peter Breen, who helped launch the courts, said that they have a proven social benefit and that counties cannot bear the cost. And he said lawmakers cannot afford to let the courts go unfunded.

Breen said the people who go through the courts are nonviolent criminals who find themselves in a spiral of crises. He said the program’s low recidivism rates are proof of their value.

The consequences of shutting the program will be felt immediately, he said.

“The people who are in mental health court today were in jail last year and will be in prison tomorrow, not 10 years from now,” he said.