Budget Returning Nearly $32 Million

Attorney General Laxalt Closes Budget Returning Nearly $32 Million to State General Fund Since Inauguration

Nevada Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt announced that his office closed its budgets for the fiscal year ending on June 30^th. This year, the budgets were closed with a significant surplus, reverting nearly $2 million in settlements and appropriations to the general fund.

“Increasing services to and protecting Nevada’s most vulnerable populations has been a focus of mine since day one,” said Laxalt. “By maximizing efficiency, I am once again poised to return real money back to Nevada’s Legislature, where it can be reallocated to priority areas like mental health, sexual assault kit prosecutions, and school safety.”

Since January 2015, AG Laxalt has returned nearly $32 million to the general fund, an amount equal to 94% of two full years of general fund salaries and operating expenses that are appropriated for the Office of the Nevada Attorney General’s services by the Legislature. The $32 million dollar reversion is based on a return of $26.1 million settlements and $5.44 million in salary and operating efficiencies.

Each legislative session, AG Laxalt has proposed efficiency reductions to his budget. In 2015, he proposed a 7% reduction to the overall general fund budget. In addition to proposing reductions and successfully reducing his budget each year, AG Laxalt ended each fiscal year with a surplus, saving 15.7 percent, 17 percent, 11 percent in fiscal years 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively.

AG Laxalt accomplished these budgetary efficiencies after a 2015 legislatively approved office reorganization. By this internal reform, the Office of Attorney General saved taxpayer dollars while making the office faster and more responsive. Among other new or expanded services, the office created the first-of-its-kind Office of Military Legal Assistance that has served more than 3,000 Nevada service members; the office initiated a working group to reduce Nevada’s decades-in-the-making sexual assault kit backlog and has led the charge to send more than 83 percent of the kits for testing; the office used non-taxpayer dollars to start a Financial Fraud and Guardianship Abuse Unit; and the office established the State’s “Prescription for Addiction” opioid program. Moreover, the Office of the Nevada Attorney General reduced Nevada’s contingent litigation liabilities by more than two-thirds, or $500 million.