Nevada OHV program warned current grant rounds unsustainable without revenue changes

Heather Buck, chief financial officer at the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, told the Nevada Commission on Off‑Highway Vehicles on Oct. 1 that the program carried $2.8 million into the current fiscal year but faces liabilities that make existing grant award levels unsustainable.

Buck said a revenue recognition issue and pending liabilities mean budget projections show a strain on reserves. "When we closed state fiscal year '25, we carried forward $2,800,000 into the current fiscal year," she said, and staff identified a $1,056,000 rejection of revenue from DMV and a total grant‑round liability of about $1,500,000.

The recommendation presented to commissioners was a staged reduction in the size of future grant rounds to protect the program's reserve: $1,250,000 in the next fiscal year, $1,000,000 the year after, and a long‑term target near $750,000. Buck characterized the plan as conservative and aimed at keeping a healthy reserve so the program can operate through economic downturns.

Commissioners pressed staff on alternatives, including modeling flat fee changes and requesting more detailed DMV registration data. Commissioner Glenn asked whether a different stair‑step approach or higher reserves would be preferable; Buck said she can produce alternate scenarios and will seek more granular DMV data to refine revenue projections. Commissioner Eason and others asked staff to model a flat $7.50 fee and different award levels to show how revenue would change.

Buck also described technical reasons for apparent discrepancies in reserve figures on different packet pages (one view used current projections; another used budgeted amounts) and said staff had used a three‑year running average while they continue gathering transaction data from DMV.

There was no formal vote on program grant levels at the meeting. Commissioners directed staff to provide follow‑up analysis with alternative models and more detailed DMV data; staff said they expected to bring expanded scenarios to a future meeting.

What happens next: staff will prepare alternate revenue models, seek DMV registration data to validate assumptions, and present revised projections to the commission for policy decisions on grant round sizing.