State budget favors university system

Monday, Nov. 17, 1997 | 12:47 p.m.

CARSON CITY -- In the 1997-98 state budget, the university system is the big winner while public schools are losing ground, according to a new report.

And during the biennium, the sales tax will replace gaming taxes as the biggest producer of revenue for the state.

Those trends are outlined in the newly released Legislative Appropriations Report, which details how the 1997 Legislature allocated money and where the tax revenues are coming from.

The 275-page document says the 1997 Legislature authorized spending of $9.3 billion for the biennium, up from 7.4 billion for 1995-97. Of that total, $3.2 billion is general fund, or state tax dollars, which is 18.7 percent higher than the prior biennium.

The university system will receive 19.7 percent of the general fund budget, up from 18.3 percent in the 1993-95 biennium. In addition, the system will receive an additional $37 million from the estate tax, which is outside the general fund budget.

Meanwhile, the share of the state budget going to kindergarten through high school fell from 36.2 percent in 1993-95 to 33.3 percent in this biennium.

State aid to public schools will top $1 billion this biennium to be added to local tax funds to handle an estimated 305,000 students. The university system will receive $582 million in general fund support to combine with its other sources of money for its estimated 40,500 students.

The university system fared better, according to some, because of its effective lobbying while the school districts did not present a unified front. In addition, the Legislature was irked by the failure of the state Board of Education to develop new tougher standards for students for K-12.

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, said the university "spoke with one voice while the 17 different (school) districts had different needs. You get a perception they are not working together."

Giunchigliani, a teacher, said she doesn't want to pit the public schools against the university system in the money game. But she says the funding approved by the Legislature doesn't make sense.

"Something is wrong with the priorities," she said, noting that funding for the public schools results in classes of 35 students to one teacher compared with the university where the ratio is closer to 15 students to one professor. And older students, she said, are easier to manage.

This downturn in funding for the public schools has been going on for 10 years, she said. Giunchigliani, a member of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, which drafts the budget, said there's "not much wiggle room" in the budget and it ends up a case of "robbing Peter to pay Paul," or reducing the state's share going to public schools to send to the university system.

"We want our youth to experience higher education," she says. "But we also want them to have access to vocational education." The emphasis, she said, should be placed on the elementary and high schools.

University Chancellor Richard Jarvis says, "I don't like to get into a comparative thing with K-12 . They're our partners and providers. I don't see any value in commenting or criticizing their share. There's no benefit in me seeing the K-12 budget go down."

Asked how the public would judge whether the university and community college system is doing a better job with its bigger share of the money, Jarvis said it shows up in more student access, better programs, completion rates, students going on to graduate or professional programs, and the satisfaction of employers with newly hired graduates.

There's no doubt, he said, that the increased money allows more financial aid, opening up the opportunity for more students to attend the community colleges and universities.

But figures for some indicators are scarce. There are no current figures, he said, on the rate of students who enter the university and get a degree. And it would take expensive surveys of employers and alumni to see if graduates got better jobs and are holding on to them.

"Our biggest goal is increasing access and we have demonstrated we have done that," Jarvis said.

For instance, he said, there are more full-time students enrolled at UNLV and he believes that is the result of more financial aid.

The report also notes that there's a new development in the mix of state revenues. In 1993-95, the receipts from the gaming tax accounted for 41.3 percent of the tax collections. In the current budget that figure drops to 35.1 percent.

Sales taxes, during this biennium, will replace gaming taxes as yielding the most revenue. The report said sales tax is expected to account for 38.4 percent of the $3.2 billion collected in 1997-99, compared with 31.8 percent in the 1993-95 biennium.

"Gaming (tax receipts) used to be considerably more than sales tax 15-20 years ago and it's not quite that way now," says economist Ted Zuend of the Legislature's Fiscal Analysis Division, which produced the report.

"Gaming has been sluggish," Zuend said. But sales tax collections, spurred by construction and car sales, has been on an upward trend.

"The state has been getting a little away from its dependence on gaming," Zuend said. "Despite the (casino) building in Las Vegas, the jobs have not been in gaming."