When Nye County Commission Chairman Joni Eastley heard about a pending bill by Assemblyman James Settelmeyer, R-Gardnerville, to eliminate the requirement that counties publish a quarterly list of bills for payment in the newspaper, she was so enthused about it, she offered to testify in its favor before the state Legislature.

Assistant County Manager Pam Webster estimated the county could save $18,000 annually by not publishing the list.

Settlemeyer is the same assemblyman who drew publlicity for a suggestion to serve cereal to state prisoners for breakfast instead of hot meals in a cost-cutting measure.

Webster said county commissioners gave acting Comptroller Tammy Otero permission to approve the bills, which they are authorized to do by Nevada law.

The latest 16-page quarterly list of Nye County bills, published by the Pahrump Valley Times Jan. 28, could possibly be used for wrapping glasses for an upcoming move or lining a bird cage. But the reader who looks at the list, can come up with an interesting summary of what tax dollars are used for.

An interested taxpayer who wants to examine the bills, might note they are paid every week, as indicated by the check dates on the left column. Those vendors are listed in alphabetical order for every check date.

Some of the interesting bills for payment include:

* A $532.52 payment every two weeks to the Ohio Child Support Payment Center;

* A $5,563 bill for the Tuscany Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas Oct. 27;

* $10,000 to the Pahrump Social Pow Wow;

* A $14.95 subscription to Mother Earth News, a $24 subscription to the Vegetarian Times, a $16.98 subscription to Fitness magazine, and a $29 subscription to National Geographic magazine in Spanish;

* A $525 payment to the National Rifle Association;

* A $1,500 payment to the Tonopah Middle School Boosters;

* A per diem bill paid to Nye County Treasurer Gary Budahl for $2,092.56, Budahl says his office has a cumulative per diem account where county employees can sign a form for their meal expenses;

* A $50,000 check paid to former Nye County Public Works Director Samson Yao.

Spanish interpreters can be costly for a court case.

Nye County paid Nelson MacKenna's Interpretation Services $2,702 in one bill and $1,672 for another.

The county paid Desert View Hospital a total of $43,523 for five different bills in the last quarter of 2008. Nye Regional Medical Center in Tonopah was paid $5,965.86. Then there are two identical $10,129 bills paid to Spring Valley Hospital in Las Vegas on Nov. 24 and Dec. 22. The county paid Unviversity Medical Center $28,940 for two bills and Sunrise Hospital $2,894.

Besides the proposed $550,000 public defender contract with Gibson and Kuehn up for approval by county commissioners next week, the county paid out some handsome bills for individual attorneys in the last quarter: $15,696 to Harry Gensler, $16,113 to Bob Glennon III and $24,244 to David Neely.

Charles Abbott and Associates, the county's building and safety department, was paid out $152,005 in the last quarter of 2008, in tallying up the list of bills.

The counseling service WestCare received payments of $5,500 to $5,700 every two weeks.

Some county commissioners submitted bills for payment. They include Eastley, with $3,395.60 for three bills; former Commissioner Roberta "Midge" Carver, $1,793.67 for two bills; and Butch Borasky, one bill for $481.02.

Nye County spent $57,910 on the senior nutrition program for those three months.

The county paid Carson Dodge Chrysler Inc. $23,680, $33,000 and $27,286 during the last quarter, while local car dealer Saitta Trudeau received a payment of $16,896.

Local utility ratepayers may complain about their bills, but Nye County paid Valley Electric Association $118,140 in bills the last quarter of 2008, they pay Utilities Inc. of Central Nevada $27,310.

Monthly bills can be as small as $40 for each member of the Pahrump Regional Planning Commission, to $17,500 paid to the federal lobbyist Akerman Senterfitt every month.

Among the largest bills were those Nye County paid Nevada State Bank, with a $527,720 payment on Oct. 9, $290,758 on Oct. 17, a $2.84 million payment on Oct. 23, $509,204 on Nov. 13 and $525,890 on Dec. 5.

Budahl said the county puts money into those bank accounts for payments to the retirement system, the state of Nevada or the school district which can then be transferred electronically. That's more reliable than relying on a comptroller manually writing it in a journal entry, he said.

What about those mysterious acronyms on some of the bills?

PBS&J, the engineering company that worked on the capital improvement plan for Pahrump streets as well as work on the Homestead Road traffic signal, collected $89,085 in the last quarter.

BEC Environmental was paid $94,099. Bureau Veritas, which finished up a flood control plan last summer received over $18,000. NERMI, a nuclear waste consultant, received $46,116.

Those three companies all received contracts awarded by county commissioners.

The county paid $84,360 in bills for the Don Goforth Juvenile Resource Center in Hawthorne, where juvenile offenders are taken and $15,500 for the Douglas County Detention Facility. Nye County cut three checks totaling $11,725 to the Mineral County clerk and treasurer, three checks totaling $3,090 to the Mineral County treasurer, $10,683 to Mineral County juvenile probation and $16,240 to the Mineral County Nuclear Projects Office.

Drill Tech Inc., a drilling contractor for the nuclear waste project office, received $521,742 in payments in the last quarter of 2008.