Board OKS emptying rainy day fund

GOP wants to wait; Democrats say cash will surely be needed

CARSON CITY — After sitting empty for the better part of a decade after the Great Recession, Nevada’s rainy day fund had finally begun to reach healthy levels in recent years.

But because of the economic fallout created by the coronavirus pandemic, all of that progress in bolstering the state’s savings account has been wiped out.

The Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee on Monday approved the transfer of all $401 million in the state’s rainy day fund to the state’s general fund to help offset the financial crisis caused by the coronavirus that has closed the state’s lifeblood industries for the past two months. The state’s Board of Examiners approved the transfer last week.

The vote passed on a party lines, with Democrats in favor and Republicans against.

The transfer of the funds follows declarations of a fiscal emergency last week, first by the governor and then by the legislative committee. The state estimates its revenue shortfall for the fiscal year

The transfer of the funds follows

for the disease caused by the new coronavirus. For that reason, they said it is a more accurate indicator of the trend of the outbreak in Clark County than new cases, because the raw number of cases is expected to climb as testing increases.

Earlier, Nevada recorded 49 new cases of COVID-19 and another decline in the statewide infection rate.

The new cases, reported by the Nevada Health and Human Services Department from the preceding 24 hours on its nvhealthresponse. nv.gov website, brought the state case total to 6,906. Reports from local health districts and counties place the total at 7,060 cases. The variance between the totals is a result of different reporting cycles.

The state death toll increased by 14 to 364 from the figure reported late Sunday. The state typically apportions those deaths over several days, so the actual increase for the day may not match the new number.

The new cases were well below the state’s daily average for the last week of just over 108.

The case total was derived from tests on 81,832 people, resulting in an infection rate of 8.44 percent. The state reported conducting 1,140 tests over the preceding day.

The infection rate — the number of positive cases divided by the number of people tested — likewise is considered a better indicator of the trend of the outbreak in the state. That figure has been declining for weeks.

In other developments Monday:

Public health officials in Washoe County reported 10 new COVID-19 cases and one additional death from the disease. The cases brought the county total to 1,266, 672 of whom have recovered, according to the Regional Information Center. The death toll in the country inched up to 48 with the death of a woman in her 90s with underlying health conditions, it said.

Nye County officials reported the first death of a county resident. A news release aid the unidentified Pahrump resident contracted the disease outside the county and also died outside the county. No additional details were provided.

Contact Mike Brunker at mbrunker@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4656. Follow @mike_brunker on Twitter.