Tribune/Debra Reid - Flanked by his staff, including Andrew Clinger, right, Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons announced his plan to take control of the state's federal stimulus funds. Clinger is the Director of the Budget and Planning Division for the state.
Tribune/Debra Reid - Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons, right, looks on as his Chief of Staff Robin Reedy, left, speaks to reporters during Friday's press conference. Gibbons and his staff announced they are taking control of Nevada's federal stimulus funds.
The announcement upset plans made early last week by the Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee to place control and disbursement of the funds with the State Controller’s Office. The committee is tasked with watching over the state’s contingency fund while the Legislature is not in session.
“Our committee felt that it was more of an accounting function,” said Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, leader of the IFC subcommittee that made the recommendation to give control to the controller. “It was done because of a belief in … what the function would be, to collect data and report data.”
The governor’s order gives his office control to spend the stimulus funds without Legislative approval.
“The Legislature is the one trying to put road blocks in and delay the implementation of the spending of this money,” Gibbons said. “I am trying to move it quickly from the requirements of the federal law down to the people who need it most.”
The order was also signed without receiving any advice from the state attorney general’s office, according to press statements. However, the attorney general was given a copy of the executive order for review on Wednesday. The move also came without any documented legal sanction from internal counsel, according to Gibbons staffers.
“We have the constitution standing behind us,” Gibbons said. “That is the legal authority.”
Gibbons dared the Legislature to sue over his action.
“If they want to challenge this, if they want to go to court and waste taxpayer money and time challenging this, so be it. Let them sue me,” he said.
Smith said following the governor’s announcement that her sentiments were that the committee will just move forward with the governor’s plan.
“At this point I don’t see any need for legal action on our part,” Smith said. “We may have other issues down the road, but today we can move on.”
Nevada has more than $2.2 billion in stimulus funding coming its way. The bulk of the money, more than $629 million, is dedicated to employment training and rehabilitation. The second largest piece of the financial pie, more than $560 million, will go to health and human services.
State Budget Director Andrew Clinger said that disbursement of the stimulus funds would be recorded on the state’s stimulus Web site, www.nv.gov/recovery.
However, he added that the process for getting that information up was still ongoing.
The most recent rating of the state’s stimulus funding Web site, by policy research center Good Jobs First, emerged with poor results. The July report gave Nevada a score of 15 out of 100 points for its stimulus Web site, ranking it in 34th place.
“That Web site they are responsible for needs to be up and running,” Smith said.
The governor’s communications director, Dan Burns, said that giving oversight to the IFC could have pushed back the distribution of some stimulus funds by three to six months. However, he added that the timeline was an estimate.
According to Smith, the controller’s office was going to start the hiring process for a stimulus funds coordinator as early as next week.
Earlier, Gibbons asked the committee for a $257,709 loan from the state’s contingency fund to pay for his own stimulus director and assistant. The funds would later be repaid to the contingency fund with stimulus money, Gibbons said.
The director would have to have the first reports on the state’s stimulus funds to the federal government by Oct. 10.
“It is disappointing that we are six to seven weeks out from the first reporting and here we are,” Smith said.
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