BudgetBudget cuts force Nevada to reconsider security priorities

Published 14 November 2011

Next fiscal year Nevada will be forced to adapt to a 47 percent cut in DHS funding. To prepare for this new financial reality, Nevada governor Brian Sandoval has called for a reassessment of the state’s homeland security priorities

Next fiscal year Nevada will be forced to adapt to a 47 percent cut in DHS funding. To prepare for this new financial reality, Nevada governor Brian Sandoval has called for a reassessment of the state’s homeland security priorities.

According to Sandoval, the last time the state’s Homeland Security Commission set security priorities was in October 2010. Reviewing priorities would help give the commission and Chris Smith, the newly appointed chief of Nevada’s Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, “a reset for all of us to ensure that we’re all on the same page,” Sandoval said.

“It would helpful to me for us to go through that exercise again with the permission of the other members of the commission,” he said. “And also to have somewhat, of what I guess for lack of a better term is, a ‘state of homeland security’ both within Nevada and federally and where we may be, where we need to be, where we’re deficient.

Doug Gillespie, the sheriff of Clark County, said the state must not only consider this year’s budget cuts but also reductions in funding from fiscal years 2010 and 2011.

“If you take all of the state homeland security money that comes to the local programs to include UASI (Urban Area Security Initiative) dollars, at the federal level right now at the Senate you are looking at close to a 47 percent reduction coming to state and local than that which you saw in 2011,” Gillespie said.

“So it’s even more important that we’re very specific and judicious with this money that is coming forth to the states because that funding stream is becoming significantly smaller than that which we’ve been used to in the past,” he said.

Gillespie added that the commission should be careful in following DHS guidelines on spending priorities as submitting grants that do not focus on those priorities will not receive funding.

Michael Haley, the sheriff of Washoe County, said the review should also reconsider which ongoing projects are feasible given current funding levels and how close the state is to reaching those objectives.

The Homeland Security Commission has agreed to meet in a special session on 7 January.