NV lawmakers OK governor's stimulus czar

CARSON CITY, Nev. - A legislative panel on Monday approved funding for a stimulus czar proposed by Gov. Jim Gibbons in what was largely a symbolic vote after the panel was told its OK was unnecessary.

Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, told other members of the Interim Finance Committee that he was informed of an oral opinion from the state attorney general that the governor had authority over federal stimulus spending.

Many Republicans on the committee, including Raggio, abstained from voting on those grounds.

Gibbons, a first-term Republican, signed an executive action Aug. 14 declaring a state emergency and creating the position of director of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds within his administration.

Last seek, he hired Charles Harvey, assistant county recorder for Clark County, to oversee the federal stimulus dollars. The $256,000 to pay for the position and an assistant will come from the federal grants.

The move came after the committee approved hiring a coordinator to oversee the $2.2 billion Nevada is receiving but took the position out of the governor's office and put it in the office of state Controller Kim Wallin, a Democrat.

Wallin has said she will proceed with creating a position in her office with contingency funds approved by the interim committee.

The committee also approved using $10.5 million for weatherization programs to help the poor.

The committee delayed that funding earlier this month after Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, accused the state Housing Division of breaking state law by refusing to hire workers from union apprenticeship programs.