Nye County wouldn't be subject to the money grab facing Clark and Washoe counties in the governor's proposed 2009 budget.

Those two most populous counties were specifically targeted for a diversion of $79 million in tax revenue to the state as part of Gov. Jim Gibbons' budget.

But Nye County could still face impacts in funding for medically indigent patients and revenues from leases for energy projects, Assistant County Manager Pam Webster said.

She plans to consult with state officials this week to determine the effects of the governor's cuts on the county.

Jeffrey Fontaine, executive director of the Nevada Association of Counties. said counties pay 2.5 cents per $100 of valuation into two separate accounts to reimburse hospitals for treating people injured in motor vehicle accidents. The governor proposes to eliminate that.

"Counties are mandated by state law to treat the medically indigent. Without that fund in place, the counties are basically on the hook to cover those costs," Fontaine said.

Desert View Hospital in Pahrump and Nye Regional Medical Center in Tonopah didn't receive much from the indigent accident fund, since most victims in traffic crashes on Nye County roads end up in trauma centers in Clark County hospitals, Fontaine said. But taking away the fund takes away the county's "hold harmless" status, he said.

"If the crash occurs on a highway in Nye County and they're treated in Clark County at UMC, Nye County is on the hook for those costs," Fontaine said. "The diversion of the indigent medical fund is really a significant impact."

NACO is still reviewing the 1,300-page governor's budget. The governor has talked about closing eight of the 19 state rural mental health centers, but the Pahrump clinic is not on the list. The Tonopah Conservation Camp is targeted for closure, he said.

The state is decreasing Medicaid reimbursement rates by 5 percent statewide, Fontaine said. State workers would take 6 percent pay cuts.

But Webster doesn't need to worry about the leasing revenue too long. Fontaine said a special, one-day interim budget session diverted revenues from geothermal leases totally to the state, instead of half to the county, but only for this fiscal year. The governor's proposed budget doesn't continue the state's practice of taking all the revenue for the coming year, he said.

Nye County took in $561,815 as its share of revenues generated from an auction of geothermal leases in Big Smoky Valley held by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in 2007.

The biggest cut by far in Gibbons' budget would be a 37 percent slash of funds for higher education, That big of a cut could raise a concern over the future of the Pahrump Great Basin College campus. But Nevada Chancellor of Higher Education Jim Rogers mockingly disregarded Gibbons' budget.

"I have never felt that his proposals would get off the ground, period. I always thought that the governor was so outrageous in his approach that at least the great majority of the people of Nevada would not buy it. I So I have not lost any sleep over it," Rogers said.

Gibbons' budget doesn't mention closing any particular higher education centers but leaves it up to the Nevada Board of Regents. Rogers said Gibbons' budget, if adopted, wouldn't just close the Pahrump campus of Great Basin College, "it would close the whole system. There wouldn't be anything left."

Rogers said over the last six months, representatives of higher education have been talking with all 63 state legislators.

"I don't have any commitments from the 63 because I never asked for them. But I feel very comfortable that the governor's budget is just not going to fly, period," Rogers said.

Rogers said he's also been paying himself for advertising, urging state residents to contact their legislators and support funding for higher education.