Valerie Soto on Wednesday offered up her 3-year-old daughter, Yvette Diaz, as an example of who would be hurt by further state budget cuts.

"She has autism," Soto told about 75 people gathered under the blistering afternoon sun at the Sawyer Building. "Previous cuts delayed services for special needs kids. Additional cuts would have devastating effects and hurt the most vulnerable."

Soto joined members of several advocacy groups representing children, families and seniors for a 20-minute rally held to send a message to Gov. Jim Gibbons and state legislators.

That message: Underfunded schools and programs for seniors, the disabled and others cannot afford more budget cuts, and Nevada must instead find a way to raise additional revenue.

"Any further cuts to education will harm us so badly in Clark County and across this state that we cannot endure at all," said Carolyn Edwards, a member of the board for the Clark County School District.

"We are a wounded animal right now, and we need an infusion. Instead of an infusion, they're looking to split us open."

Lawmakers are looking for ways to cut state spending by $250 million or more. That is on top of $913 million in cuts already made in the current 2007-09 budget, bringing the total cutbacks to nearly $1.2 billion.

Gibbons said Wednesday that he will not recommend delaying 4 percent cost-of-living, or COLA, raises for teachers and state workers when he announces his plan on television tonight to balance the state budget.

The governor said the COLA issue can still be taken up by lawmakers if they choose to do so.

Clark County School Board members are expected to decide today whether to ratify a contract with teachers that includes the cost-of-living increase.

When told Gibbons would not recommend COLA cuts, Edwards said: "I would love to take him at his word. But he's changed his mind on a lot of things."

Gibbons has called a three-day special legislative session, to begin Friday, to look at where the latest cuts can be made. The advocates argued for raising money instead.

"Although many of us are feeling the bite of this economic downturn, there are industries out there that are doing quite well," said Launce Rake, spokesman for the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada.

"They're raking in billions of dollars in profits in mining, big box retailers. To those folks, we're saying, they can step up to the plate. They can help out."

Nevada already ranks among the worst states in the nation for its per-pupil school funding, percentage of uninsured children and programs for seniors and the disabled, Rake said.

"We have cut and cut and cut again, and we're down to the bone."

Mark Nichols, executive director of Nevada's chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, said the state's "fundamentally flawed" tax system has led to the budget crisis and must be reformed.

"Nevada is not spending too much money," Nichols said. "Nevada is in fact a wealthy state. But we are not a very caring or generous state."

Nichols said the state generates inadequate revenue to support education and human services needs, taxes poor people at higher rates than very wealthy residents, and relies too heavily on sales and gaming tax revenues.

Nichols said, "We never asked, 'Well, what if the tourists don't come?' "

Also participating in Wednesday's rally were members of the Nevada State Education Association, Nevadans for Quality Education, Every Child Matters in Nevada, Nevada Institute for Children's Research and Policy, and AARP Nevada.

Some legislators have said the state's shortfall might be worse than the $250 million figure estimated last week by the Economic Forum. The group of private business leaders determines how much tax revenue is available for state government to spend.

The special legislative session is coming at a time when state unemployment has reached 6.2 percent, the highest in 14 years.

Also, total state tax revenues have declined compared with the previous year for the first time in at least 30 years.

Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285. [END]

What plagues Clark County's child welfare system has been diagnosed by authorities high and low -- inadequate and poorly trained staff, incomplete investigations of reported abuse and neglect, a foster parent shortage and child removal rates that exceed the national average.

The cure recently prescribed by local, state and federal officials is significantly increased funding paired with more stringent oversight and regulation.

On Monday, U.S. Rep. Jon Porter assembled a round table of child welfare advocates and administrators from all levels of community and government to check up on what improvements have been made within the ailing service system and what remains to be done.

"I am very optimistic and encouraged, but I still think we have a lot of work to do," said Porter, who became involved with local child welfare issues after last year's string of high-profile tragedies involving children in protective custody. "And the only way we can do it is as a team."

U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, Gov. Jim Gibbons, Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley, Nevada Supreme Court Chief Justice William Maupin and Clark County Commissioners Lawrence Weekly and Bruce Woodbury were among those who attended the discussion organized by Porter.

The assembled political will bodes well for Nevada's reform effort, said Casey Family Programs President William Bell. Having everyone join in the discussion means that everyone is informed about the challenges in front of them.

"I don't know of very many places in the country where this type of conversation takes place, with this type of leadership sitting around the table," said Bell, who represents the nation's largest operating foundation focused on improving foster care.

"I am absolutely convinced that Nevada can become, if not the best, then one of the best child welfare systems in the country," Bell said.

But before that has a chance of happening, those at the table acknowledged that the strides made to date have just been the first steps of reform.

Mike Willden, Nevada director of the Department of Health and Human Services, said that Gibbons and state lawmakers supported an unprecedented increase in child welfare funding to Clark County in the last session. The 2007-09 state allocation for Clark County is $131 million, up from $80 million in state funding for the last two years, Willden said.

But while Clark County now has the funding to beef up staffing and training, it's still reeling from the problem of turnover and the culture of blame that singles out child welfare workers as the problem. Clark County Director of Family Services Tom Morton said turnover in his department is at about 14 percent annually.

That's only to be expected in any system undergoing dramatic changes, Morton said. But those who remain are rising to the occasion and meeting new mandates to close cases within 45 days and improve record keeping. Supervision is also being expanded Morton said, with Family Services working toward having one supervisor for every five case workers.

"A year from now, I think you'll see a very different organization," Morton said.

UNLV Professor of Social Work Leroy Pelton worried that too much attention was being focused on what to do after children are taken into custody. Not enough attention is being placed on how to reduce the number of children who come into the system in the first place. Families could remain intact if the resources used to place children in foster care and at Child Haven were redirected and used for family housing.

For instance, Pelton said, the daily cost of keeping a child at Child Haven is $159. Most children remain at the shelter for about 20 days.

"That's the cost of housing an entire family for about eight months," Pelton said.

Bell agreed that more attention needed to go toward how to invest in families as a whole.

"This is an issue that's so vitally important," Weekly said. "I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to figure it out."

Porter plans to organize another roundtable later this year as other planned changes in child welfare are made. [END]