In Late Night Hearing, Assembly Caught Up In Education Funding Numbers Game
Submitted by Nevada News Bureau on Tue, 04/19/2011 - 10:37pm
CARSON CITY – The Assembly was awash with numbers tonight.
As part of the Democratic strategy to close the budget, the Assembly as a whole discussed for four and a half hours the education budget so that all legislators could learn about the cuts.
Legislative staff presented to the Assembly more than $1 billion proposed “major reductions” to school districts. These numbers come from a variety of sources:
- $600 million from freezing teachers’ pay increases, reducing salaries by 5 percent and making teachers contribute more to their retirement plans.
- $238 million from the governor’s direct reductions to state support for public schools.
- $221 million of room tax money continues to shift from supporting schools to the state general fund, as it does in the current budget.
The governor has also proposed to use $301 million in districts’ bond debt reserves for day-to-day expenses. School district representatives argue that this equates to an additional cut.
For legislators who do not sit on fiscal committees, the hearing in the Assembly chambers allowed them to ask questions about the education budget and education policy.
What ensured was a semantics game.
Gov. Brian Sandoval’s budget director, Andrew Clinger, said that a $141 million pay freeze does not equate to a reduction and the $221 million room tax is already diverted to the state budget this year.
Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, D-Sparks, contended the pay freeze was a reduction.
Clinger said shifting $301 million from debt reserves to day-to-day expenses was not a cut.
Smith said it was.
The confusion, however, did not end there.
Assemblywoman Marilyn Dondero-Loop, D-Las Vegas, asked how much money the state would cut per student. That ever elusive “per pupil spending” number was no easier to find this evening.
“It really depends on who you ask,” Clinger said. “Depending on what your source is, you’re going to get a different answer.”
Depending how one cooks the numbers, those estimates can vary by thousands of dollars. But boiled down, the proposed budget would allot $315 less per student than it currently does.
Smith asked Washoe County Superintendent Heath Morrison whether he thought sweeping districts’ bond reserves should be called a “cut.”
“The semantics of ‘is it a cut?’ Here’s what I know: It hurts the Washoe County School District,” he said.
Republicans, however, contended that school districts could make the cuts hurt less through changes to state government.
Assemblymen Pat Hickey, R-Reno, and Mark Sherwood, R-Las Vegas, suggested that school districts suspend prevailing wage – a requirement to pay a certain wage for public works projects – in an attempt to help districts save money.
Assemblyman Mark Hammond, R-Las Vegas, who is a teacher at a Las Vegas school, said he would like to see principals have more control over funds that come to their schools.
Assemblyman Crescent Hardy, R-Mesquite, said the Legislature should change collective bargaining rules so districts can drive a harder bargain for contracts with teachers and administrators.
Morrison contended this would not help. He said teachers and administrators have agreed to cuts in the past.
“I did not see collective bargaining as a problem,” he said. “I did not see anything but cooperation and support.”
Smith also said that reform is not the issue.
“We do need reform and we are working on reform,” she said. “But we also need to adequately fund our education system.”
Through the semantics squabbles and policy debates, a partisan bent seemed to triumph.
Democrats said there was too little in the governor’s $5.8 billion budget to help Nevada out of the recession.
“The elephant in the room is that we have a revenue problem rather than a spending problem,” said Assemblyman Joseph Hogan, D-Las Vegas.
Republicans said Sandoval’s budget is just right.
“The governor is trying to restore the economy,” said Assemblyman Pete Livermore, R-Carson City. “If you’re going to tax people out of their businesses and out of their homes, how can you restore the economy?”
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