Home»Special Session 2010»State employees facing four day work weeks

State employees facing four day work weeks

Page Last Updated: Tuesday March 2, 2010 8:00am PST

Gerard Ramalho reporting

Nevada’s budget is balanced – at least for now – after a full week of intense bargaining that ended early Monday morning in Carson City.

The budget, which will temporarily fill the state’s major shortfall, includes 6.9 percent school cuts for everything from kindergarten to college.

New revenue will also be generated with higher fees on mining and banking companies, and most state employees will switch to ten hour, four day work weeks.

This new work schedule will affect every Nevadan.

The DMV, for example, has already imposed a hiring freeze throughout 2009 and has cut more than 130 positions. And at the Henderson location Monday, it was standing-room only with an average wait time of several hours.

“It sucks! It really does,” says one DMV patron. “I'm from the state of Washington and we never.... An hour would be a long day."

The DMV offices in the Las Vegas area are currently open six days per week, from 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday and from 8 am to 4 pm on Saturdays.

But under the new budget bill just passed by Nevada lawmakers, those work days could be reduced from six days to four, some with longer hours.

DMV officials have not yet received specific directives but say they may petition an exemption.

The bill, however, does have certain allowances where public health and safety are concerned.

"It does allow for those offices that, for whatever reason, can't be closed on Fridays, that they can come to the Board of Examiners and get an exemption and get an alternative schedule to that,” confirms Andrew Clinger, Nevada Budget Administrator.

The new state employee work hours are set to take effect July 1, 2010. Whether the DMV will be included is still uncertain, however.

"In the meantime we've also implemented two new programs: our Insurance Verification Program and the new licensing program that kicked off last Monday,” says Kevin Malone, Nevada DMV. “So the lines, unfortunately, are going to get longer, not shorter."

So, in other words, pull up a chair – if you can find one – because there’s really no such thing as a quick trip to the DMV anymore.

At this point, officials with the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles are analyzing what options they have.

While they want to do their part to save the state money, at the same time, they must continue to meet the needs of the citizens.

View News Archive »