Nye County facing multi-million-dollar shortfall
Last month, Nye County commissioners learned that the county is facing a major budgetary challenge as it readies to submit its fiscal year 2026-2027 budget to the Nevada Dept. of Taxation (DTax), with a multi-million-dollar shortfall that will require steep cuts in order to rectify.
“The last time we talked about the [fiscal year] 2027 budget was the tentative budget. We submitted it to DTax but they will not approve the 2027 budget because of the deficit balance,” Nye County Comptroller Zena Teich told the commissioners during the board’s Tuesday, May 19 meeting, at which the final budget was scheduled to be adopted.
“For fiscal year 2027, total revenues have gone up slightly from the tentative budget, to $57 million. Our wages and salaries, benefits, services and supplies, total expenditures in the general fund is $56.72 million,” Teich continued. “We have what ended up to be a 2% contingency… and then we also have transfers to other funds – health clinic, debt service, jail fund and extraordinary maintenance. Those transfers are $10.5 million, which brings up to a total expenditure outlay of $68 million. When you look at the expenditures compared to the revenues, we have a shortfall of, rounded, $11 million.”
To eat away at that shortfall, Teich was recommending all open and new county positions, including those in public safety and the animal shelter, be pulled from the 2027 budget, that any reclassification/promotion of employees be halted and that a 25% reduction in services and supplies across the board be implemented. However, this still would not be enough to keep the county’s budget from being in the black.
“Our net shortfall, after making those changes, if the board approves them, would bring us to a deficit of $1.9 million. We need to make that a zero,” Teich explained.
“That’s a lot of money,” commissioner John Koenig remarked, later adding, “It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be hard cuts.”
Many community members are asking how the county could have gotten into such dire financial straits but as commissioners noted that morning, with continual turnover in the finance department, it’s a complex problem resulting from years of issues.
“We could be here until three in the morning trying to explain it,” commissioner Ian Bayne stated. “I have a whole list of things to do [to balance the budget]… This just isn’t the right forum.”
With much more work to be done before the budget can be submitted, the commissioners each arranged to meet with county finance staff for one-on-one, internal meetings to discuss potential ways to reduce the deficit. Therefore, the final county budget public hearing was continued to next week.
The Nye County Commission will address that item during a meeting on Wednesday, May 27, which can be attended in Pahrump at 2100 E. Walt Williams Drive, in Tonopah at 101 Radar Road or via teleconference. The agenda can be found at NyeCountyNV.gov
Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com
