Nye County begins FY2025 budget workshop, aims to rebuild reserves and trim costs

Nye County commissioners spent the bulk of their April 30 meeting in a live FY2025 tentative budget workshop focused on rebuilding the general fund reserve and modeling personnel tradeoffs.

Comptroller Helen Bay told the board that the FY25 budgeting objective is to "get that reserve back up" to the policy target: the greater of $5.8 million or 16.67% of operating expenditures (two months of operating reserves). Bay said staff will use Department of Taxation projections for property and consolidated (sales) tax revenues and will model conservatively to avoid repeating FY23 revenue shortfalls.

Why it matters: the general fund covers core county services and interfund transfers (including jail support). Bay showed a live budgeting workbook that lets commissioners toggle department requests, reclassifications and cost‑sharing allocations with the Town of Pahrump. The workbook demonstrated how personnel decisions (reclasses, hiring, and freezing unfilled positions) and cost-sharing for overhead (example: a 14.4% Town of Pahrump share) change the county's ending fund balance in real time.

Department requests and highlights: during the workshop the board heard multiple departmental presentations and personnel requests, including:
- Recorder: requests to promote staff working out of class and to address records management at a later capital-project hearing (Dawn Gudmundson).
- Assessor: a request to reallocate a requested appraiser position and convert a part‑time account clerk to full time in Tonopah to support reappraisal work (Sherry Stringer).
- Sheriff: request for four dispatch positions to reduce overtime and improve coverage across shifts (Sheriff Joe McGill).
- Courts: Tonopah and Pahrump justice courts asked for reclassifications and additional bailiff coverage to address security and scheduling gaps (Judge Jennifer Klapper; Judge Michelle Fiore).
- IT: a reclassification and hierarchy proposal to create senior and lead tiers to improve retention (Brad Adams).
- Pahrump Valley Fire & Rescue: chief asked for three FTEs (one per platoon) to improve response staffing; commissioners later adopted the fire PSST plan.
- Health & Human Services: asked to convert a Tonopah part‑time position to full time, noting the role is funded by medical-indigency revenue, not the general fund.

Modeling outcomes: commissioners and staff tested a scenario that allocated 14.4% of overhead costs to Town of Pahrump and approved many of the town's reclassifications in the live model. With the initial set of toggles and several offsets (including relinquished unfilled positions), the workbook showed Nye County's tentative adjustments near $1.73 million in the scenario tested; town reserves remained above the two‑month benchmark. Outstanding items requiring staff follow-up included pricing for proposed animal-shelter positions (veterinarian and supervisor) and precise district-court staffing transfers.

Next steps: Bay told the board the tentative budget was filed with the Department of Taxation on April 15 and that DTAX will certify the budget prior to the final hearing. She scheduled further departmental hearings and another workshop to finalize capital projects and said the final budget signature is set for May 21 if additional items are resolved.

What to watch: the board and staff will continue to model personnel tradeoffs, candidate reclassifications, and transfers. Comptroller Bay said some requests will be deferred to the May final hearing so staff can provide exact cost figures; commissioners asked that staff provide an editable copy of the live workbook for their review.