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Published Thursday, July 29, 2010 | 9:43 a.m.
Updated Friday, July 30, 2010 | 10:02 a.m.
Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, said today the Guinn Millennium Scholarship likely won’t survive the next round of budget cuts lawmakers will be forced to make in the 2011 legislative session.
Lawmakers are expected to face a budget shortfall as large as $3 billion when they convene in February.
“What else are you going to cut?” a frustrated Leslie lamented, saying the popular scholarship that has funded a college education for thousands of Nevada students is on the list.
Leslie, barred from running for re-election because of term limits, is running for state Senate in Reno.
The six-term assemblywoman, who has long advocated a corporate business tax to help stabilize Nevada’s revenue structure, is frustrated that neither gubernatorial candidate appears to be taking the looming budget shortfall seriously.
Both candidates have vowed not to raise taxes and neither has presented a plan for how they would cut nearly half of the state’s general fund spending. Only Republican candidate Brian Sandoval has hinted at where he would find savings, saying he would propose salary cuts for state workers and teachers.
Democrat Rory Reid is promising to release a budget proposal in coming months.
But Leslie is irate the candidates aren't talking more the budget problem and finds their claims that the budget can be fixed without raising taxes disingenuous. She said at the very least the next governor will have to lift the sunset on the tax increases passed in the 2009 session.
Leslie’s claim that the Millennium Scholarship will have to go fits into a strategy by some Democrats to find cuts that a broader swath of the public will feel. Cuts to social services depended upon solely by the poor sometimes go unnoticed, making it more difficult to argue for more taxes, they say.
Last session, Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, called for closing state parks and other cuts that would directly affect a majority of the public.
Leslie acknowledged losing the Millennium Scholarship would “shock” the public. But she said she doesn’t believe voters fully appreciate how dire the state’s revenue crisis is.
Millennium Scholarship fund never should have been set up the way it was. It was created to grow and grow and grow. It should have been limited to qualified low-income students who compete for a preset pot of cash.
That said, business taxes won't stabilize Nevada's tax base. http://npri.org/publications/one-sound-s...
PS, when it comes time to budget cuts, to avoid cuts, political leaders target the most politically popular programs in order to shock the public into wanting someone to pay more in taxes.
This program should be limited to qualified kids. Ones that deserve it and have worked for it. Not just because of their income levels.
The program should be set up as a LOAN. If they get their degree within five years with a GPA of 3.5 then the loan should be forgiven.
If they drop out, don't get a degree or just slide by then should be made to repay the loan so others that stick it out and work hard would have money and a chance to get ahead in life.
To many free give aways without enough expectations makes for a low standard of live for all involved.
Patrick where is the link to your no pain budget? No new taxes and no cuts either, life will be grand!
america the richest country and we cannot pay for higher education. many other countries that we disparage make sure their teenagers are educated for free and have free medical care. articles like this one and vegaslee opinions are the reason why Nevada is last in education ( a loan?? yep burden our young with debt as soon as they begin adulthood great plan). what a sham
wakeup.
You should have read what I posted. It is only a loan if you don't finish and get your degree. The quitters have to pay. Nothing wrong with that.
Your right, many other countries have free medical and free education. In those countries 100% of the population pays taxes. In America only half of the country pays taxes.
Nothing is free anywhere.
You will pay one way or the other. In this country to many of you want the earning half to pay all the bills. Those wanting everything for nothing are the problem, not those of us that expect people to pay their own way in life.
Pennsylvania has NINE casinos in its entire state. At the end of June, they had paid more than one BILLION dollars in taxes. Nevada has 260 casinos and paid 830 million dollars in taxes. Third behind Indiana. Sorry Nevada casinos but if you're going to play, you have to pay. I know they will say they'll have to lay off and cut back but how much money exactly do the executives have to make? We're last in every category in the country. It's time to do something about it.
I don't see any of the casinos running from Pennsylvania.
I think a majority of Nevadans either don't know or don't care about the Millenium Scholarship, or about education in general. Heck there are college profs at UNLV and CSN who don't care much about the system; they do their work and go home. It's a vicious cycle that breeds generations of apathy and ignorance.
Tom Shermpsun
Great Ruins of Las Vegas
@ Tom. Agreed. I've spoken to some of the professors at UNLV. The reason they don't care is they get zero support. I just spoke to one on Tuesday and he said there's just so much he can do. So what happens, he just goes through the motions. It's a lot like a union mentality. Don't work harder than anyone else, just stay up with everyone else and you'll be fine. No more. No less. My first job in college I was working at a car rental place that was union. I busted my butt the first few days. Then the union steward came over and said, don't work so hard. It all pays the same. And then I was called rookie and somewhat teased as a result of my hard work. Then of course, management started asking what happened to my hard work. I see the same thing with UNLV. Thanks to budget cuts and a general sense of apathy, there's no real drive on their end.
At BCDave. I don't get your comment. . .
DCDave,Jke,
The casinos in PA and elsewhere have considerable monopoly power in their areas. They can afford to pay those taxes because there is virtually no competition. You put a tax like they have in Nevada and you will kill the state....
I'm not saying the high rates of other states, in Pennsylvania it is 55% which is crazy - but maybe bump our casinos to 10%. It won't kill them to do that. By the way, the casinos in Pennsylvania, even with their high tax rates still have beautiful buildings, good restaurants, great service and still have the doors open. Granted, they don't have the competition we do but they do have some competition and it is continuing to expand. Ohio gets gaming next year.
And Patrick, speaking of monopoly power, I would certainly say that MGM and Harrahs have monopoly power here.
No competition in PA? Guess you have never been to Atlantic City (which is an hour from Philly).
And the NPRI plan to address revenue is to exempt businesses from the MBT and make poor people pay taxes on food. Nothing like broadening the most regressive tax in NV (http://www.npri.org/publications/the-mos... ) to help out the Chamber of Commerce.
@ dazed.
Atlantic City is dying. With the options in Pennsylvania, especially now that table games are available, AC will continue to die a very slow death. Old, dirty, crime infested. They spend about $8 million a year to promote AC. Vegas more than $100 million. Not that AC is Vegas but they should have been spending more on promoting AC, especially with the other states bringing in gaming. Rather, they've spent tens of millions promoting horse racing in obscure areas. Check out the numbers and then watch what happens between now and the end of the year to AC.
GOOD!!!!!!! iT WAS NOTHING MORE THAN MONEY GIVEN TO POLITICIANS TO SPEND FOOLISHLY. AND IT WAS.
I just love this "low income students should get the millenium" arguemnt.
I was "low income" once, I joined the army, giving them three years of my life that pretty much sucked and I could never get back.
Then I went to school on the GI bill.
I am glad that the only qualifier is by GPA, I just get so sick of hearing how "low income" people should get this and that. When I was low income all I ever got was a job.
The entire reason for the Millennium Scholarship was to give kids, who had no hope of paying for college, a chance to go. To say that there is no "Low Income" argument is ridiculous. That is the entire argument. If met a certain grade point average, and did the work, you got help with college. It was a good plan, brought to light by a great governor, and the fact that it is being cut shows just how mismanaged this state really is.