"Gov. Jim Gibbons intends to ask the widow of missing multimillionaire Steve Fossett to help pay the state's $687,000 tab in the unsuccessful search for the famed adventurer last fall."
A spokesperson from the Nevada governor's office made the announcement yesterday.
"We are going to request that they help offset some of these expenses, considering the scope of the search, the overall cost as well as our ongoing budget difficulties," Ben Kieckhefer, Gibbons' press secretary, told The Associated Press.
Kieckhefer explained the request would be in the form of a letter and any donation from the Fossett family would be voluntary.
"I know it's a time of loss and you want to be sympathetic but at the same time, since we are having such a big shortfall we are trying to scrape wherever we can to come up with some money," said Assembly Ways and Means Chairman Morse Arberry.
