Nye County gets new veterans’ services fund

Nye County will get a veterans’ services fund after commissioners adopted a resolution authorizing the measure.

The county recently raised licensing fees for sex workers and said it will put half of the collected money into the veterans’ fund.

“We will start moving the money immediately into the new fund, and it will be half of the cost of the cards,” Nye County Manager Pam Webster said.

Nye County Commissioner Lorinda Wichman said the veterans’ fund was established when the county was struggling to provide the funding for the Veterans Services Office and the Veterans Services officer.

“I remember the justification for the increase during the public meeting was to support that office. I made the motion to increase the fees and the additional revenue, beyond the original, was to be isolated for that purpose,” Wichman said.

The state of Nevada has since then assumed the role of providing the Veterans Services Office, and Nye County no longer has that expense.

“The original motion that was made when they increased the girls’ fees, the portion that they increased it by was dedicated to the Veterans Services Office,” Wichman said. “The fee was doubled, so the original fee still pays for everything that they need to cover administratively, but the increase in the fees was dedicated to veterans’ services.

According to the documents, any deficit in the fund shall be remedied by a transfer from the Nye County general fund, and any excess fund balance should be reversed to the county’s general fund, if the fund is closed. In addition, the fund shall be subject to an annual independent audit at the same time all the county’s funds are examined.

“If for some reason we give them too much money to cover something, and the money is not in the fund, the deficit, what we are short for that fund comes out of general fund,” Wichman said.

While the brothel licensing fees have increased, there was no change in sex worker fees.

“We could reasonably expect to see an increase in revenue by 25 percent over last year’s revenue, as that was the motion that passed,” Wichman said.

Contact reporter Daria Sokolova at dsokolova@pvtimes.com. On Twitter @dsokolova77