CARSON CITY – State budget Director Andrew Clinger today sent a memo to all agencies saying the process of building the new two-year Nevada budget will be substantially different from past practice.

Given the fiscal crisis faced by the state over the past three years, Nevada can no longer craft a budget by taking the previous year’s expenditures, adjust for one-time expenditures and add inflation and caseload growth, he said.

“We must create a budget process that looks first at the outcomes citizens expect,” Clinger said. “Some of the questions this new budget building approach needs to answer are: What is the proper role of state government? What services must we provide? What is the most efficient way to provide those services? And, what is the best way to pay for them?”

Clinger said the administration has formed the Priorities of Government Working Group to help answer these questions by reviewing and prioritizing all state services. The first step will be to create an inventory of all state services and the outcomes they produce.

As part of this process, agencies will be required to provide mission statements and a list of activities the agency engages in. Also required will be the populations served, the cost of the activity, how the activity is currently funded and outcome and output measures related to the activity.

“The answers to these questions along with other criteria identified by the working group will help us begin to prioritize where to use our limited state resources and engage in activities that produce the most valuable outcomes for our citizens,” Clinger said in the memo.

Agencies are required to submit their preliminary budgets for the 2011-2013 biennium to the Department of Administration by Sept. 1.