Panel shifts job training money to child care

CARSON CITY -- Lawmakers cut the funding cord for the governor's proposed employment training program and lessened the blow to child care assistance as they finished work on Nevada's welfare budget Tuesday.

Gov. Brian Sandoval originally sought $10 million for Silver State Works, which proposed using employment incentives and on-the-job training to put more welfare recipients back to work. He later amended that contribution to $2 million. But a joint budget committee took away even that money.

The committee restored $2 million for a child care assistance program that was facing a $12 million reduction in general funds. The program serves families in a "discretionary" population, in which a household's income is 130 to 250 percent of the federal poverty level.

Cuts would have eliminated more than 1,100 children from the program each year; the $2 million restores 300 children each year.

A "kinship care" program that pays relatives to take care of children who would otherwise enter foster care saw a 25 percent cut. Average payments would drop from $894 per month to $671 per month, and about 500 children would be affected.