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Joint subcommittee restores merit award funding, approves Department of Administration budget closings
Summary
The joint Senate and Assembly subcommittee on General Government approved technical closings for multiple Department of Administration budgets and voted to restore a small merit award fund to recognize state employee cost‑saving suggestions.
Carson City — The Nevada Legislature’s joint subcommittee on General Government voted unanimously March 19 to approve a package of budget closings for the Department of Administration and to restore funding for the department’s Merit Award program.
The subcommittee approved an allocation from the Workers’ Compensation and Safety Fund totaling $387,804 over the 2025–27 biennium to continue funding one unclassified appeals officer in the Hearings and Appeals Division. Fiscal staff said the additional appeals officer was established in FY2024 to respond to a sustained increase in contested workers’ compensation claims and help maintain statutory scheduling deadlines for hearings and appeals.
The action was part of a larger set of “staff closing” recommendations presented by Damien Meeks of the Legislative Counsel Bureau’s Fiscal Analysis Division. After presentation of several accounts that fiscal staff recommended be closed as the governor recommended — with a limited set of technical adjustments — the subcommittee approved the package by voice vote.
The panel also took up the Merit Award Board account, which the governor’s recommended budget had proposed eliminating for the 2025–27 biennium. The merit award program, the subcommittee was told, was created to recognize state employees who propose cost‑savings or efficiency improvements. Fiscal staff noted the program had been inactive for several years due to leadership turnover; the board resumed meetings and had issued one award of $750 in 2025.
Assemblymember Backus urged retaining funding to continue recognizing employee suggestions, saying the award “could be very helpful” as an incentive for staff to propose cost‑saving ideas. Assemblymember Anderson moved to reinstate the program’s administrative appropriation of $3,000 and add $5,000 for awards; Assemblymember O’Neil seconded. The motion carried unanimously.
The subcommittee then approved closing the remaining Administration accounts listed in the packet — including the Director’s Office, Mail Services (and Mail Services equipment), Purchasing, Federal Surplus Property Program, and multiple Nevada State Library, Archives and Public Records accounts — as recommended by fiscal staff with the noted technical adjustments.
The actions taken were voice votes and recorded in the hearing transcript as unanimous approvals.
The subcommittee recessed after completing the Department of Administration closings and later reconvened to continue closings for the Department of Taxation.
