Nevada Judiciary

The Nevada Supreme Court will be returning another $2.5 million dollars to the state General Fund now that the fiscal year 2009 budget has been closed.

The $2.5 million is more than 28 percent of the eligible funding that could be targeted for cuts and is in addition to the 4.6 percent budget cuts made by the Supreme Court during the 2009 session of the Nevada Legislature. 

“For the past two years, the Supreme Court and its staff have worked hard to conserve resources and implement efficiencies in our operations,” Chief Justice Hardesty said.  “We have reverted millions of dollars and will continue to do all we can to optimize the use of our resources in the future.  The Court is also committed to meeting its constitutional and statutory duties in providing access to justice to our state’s residents and businesses.”

At the end of fiscal year 2008, the Nevada Supreme Court returned $1,993,514 to the State General Fund, which was 27.4 percent of the state funding targeted by Governor Jim Gibbons for cuts.  The Governor had requested that all state government entities revert 4.5 percent of previously allocated funds.

In fiscal year 2009, the Governor sought the return of 7.9 percent.  The $2.5 million reverted by the Supreme Court was more than three times the percentage sought.

Eligible funds include monies other than the statutorily set salaries for the Justices and District Court Judges, which cannot be reduced under the Constitution.

The fiscal year 2008 reversion was the result of budget reductions and the increased collection of administrative assessments on misdemeanor and traffic fines.

The fiscal year 2009 reversion included:

Funding for the Supreme Court is a combination of state General Funds and administrative assessments.  General funds pay for less than half (49%) of the Court’s expenditures. 

Total General Funds appropriated to the Supreme Court amount to just 0.63 percent of the entire state budget.