Nye County Water District adopts final budget for fiscal year 2025–26 in unanimous vote

The Nye County Water District Governing Board on May 27 adopted its final budget for fiscal year 2025–26 following public deliberation and board questions, voting unanimously 5–0 to approve the measure.

Board Chair Ed Goodhart presided over the meeting in Pahrump where the board reviewed adjustments made to the tentative budget and discussed several line-item changes before voting. The board’s comptroller, Elma Bay, presented the final figures and answered detailed questions from board members about differences between the tentative and final documents.

Board members said the final budget reflects more precise estimates than the tentative numbers because staff had additional information on lease costs, utilities and the district’s grant commitments. "The large difference ... the total amount is a hundred and twenty‑four thousand less," said Bruce Holden, citing the change between tentative and final totals.

Bay and manager Daniel Weeks told the board the change largely resulted from refining salary estimates and moving some of the work previously shown as staff labor to contract or grant-funded work. The board removed 0.5 of an employee previously listed after clarification that the person is a Nye County employee working under an MOU with the district, not a district employee.

The board also discussed how grant-funded contracts are represented in the schedules. Bay said some items in the supplemental schedules—such as a $65,000 entry for DRI cloud seeding and a $200,000 DRI modeling contract—are obligations or prepaid amounts that will be recognized as expenses in the current fiscal year but do not reflect new cash outflow for the district this year. "This schedule is a supplemental for your information only," Bay said of the vendor/contract schedules.

Board members asked for clearer side‑by‑side detail in future packets showing where the tentative and final numbers changed so the public and board can see which line items were adjusted. The comptroller agreed to prepare more detailed line‑item comparisons for future meetings.

After additional procedural clarifications about contingency line items and how vendor schedules are supplemental (not binding as contract amounts), a motion to adopt the final budget was moved and seconded and the roll call vote recorded Helene Williams, Bruce Holden, Ernie Jackson, Michael Locke and Ed Goodhart voting "aye." The board declared the motion carried 5–0.

The board and staff noted the district will continue to refine accounting separation for grants and general operations to improve future budget transparency and facilitate grant reporting.