Governor Gibbons: "We had expected these numbers"

Page Last Updated: Wednesday December 2, 2009 3:58pm PST

Shelley Kudelka-News 4

For the 11th straight month state sales have dropped. In September, they declined just past 17 percent. For gross revenue collections from sales tax they dropped 12.7 percent from September 2008. So do low figures mean a special legislative session is in the making for state lawmakers?

Shortly after the figures were released News 4 spoke with the person in charge of convening a special session--Governor Jim Gibbons.

News 4 : "Revenue projections are down, will you call a Special Session?"

Governor Gibbons: "Those figures that were released... are part of the equation that we will take into consideration as we move forward through this process of looking at the budget, looking where we are with revenues... Remember, it's all income, expenditures, and cash flow. Once we make all those determinations then we'll have a better idea."

News 4: "If you don't call for a Special Session, how we will make up for shortfalls?"

Governor Gibbons: "Just as we've always done. We expect government, like you, like every other family in Nevada to live within its means. Government ought to learn to live within its means and we're going to do the best we can to make sure our government lives within its means. "

News 4: "Do you know when a Special Session would be?"

Governor Gibbons: "I wouldn't have a clue to tell you that it would be one specific day. But if all the factors there add up to a special session, which we do not know yet... I'd say it'd be sometime in January, late January, early February time frame, IF we call one."

News 4: "Are the latest numbers surprising or disappointing?"

Governor Gibbons: "We had expected these numbers to be exactly where they were, and I tried to tell the legislature not to continue this level of spending that requires us to cut in the end... We were always very conservative in our approach but our legislature is what put us here, now we've gotta deal with a budget that requires us to deal with over expenditures."

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