KLAS-TV Channel 8 News Las VegasGloomy Update on Nevada Economy
LAS VEGAS -- Nevada's crushing budget shortfall could now sitting at more than $400 million, that's more than six times higher than earlier projections.
To add to that, the chief state economist told a panel of economic experts, that Nevada will lose nearly 90,000 more jobs in the next two years.
The grim picture was painted for the Economic Forum which met in Carson City Friday to go over the budget numbers. Those numbers could set the stage for a special session of the legislature and mean deep cuts to nearly every part of Nevada government.
"We're really in unprecedented times here in Nevada," Bill Anderson, chief economist for the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, told the five-member Economic Forum. "The recovery, when it does unfold, will likely be relatively slow and relatively choppy."
Gov. Jim Gibbons convened the forum to update revenue projections for the biennium that ends June 30, 2011. The governor has said a special session of the Legislature is likely to deal with the state's deepening financial crisis.
Gibbons also has asked state agencies to prepare for possible budget cuts of up to 10 percent. Under state law, the forum's projections must be used to set the state budget. It last met May 1 to forecast revenues for the rest of the 2009 fiscal year that ended June 30, and also the next two years.
The state reported Friday that Nevada's unemployment rate climbed again to 13 percent from 12.3 percent in November. That's the second highest jobless rate in the nation.
(Associated Press contributed to this report.)
