Economic hard times prompt educators to request more budgetary power

Kiley Russell

Tuesday, March 23, 1999 | 5:28 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Nevada university and community college officials asked lawmakers Tuesday for more flexibility over their campus budgets to help them cope with a systemwide funding shortfall.

Richard Jarvis, chancellor of the University and Community College System of Nevada, asked a joint budget committee to give education officials the leeway to move money from campuses with lower enrollment to those that are over-enrolled.

Jarvis' preferred option - the "trust us" approach - is for a single appropriation for the entire system, along with the discretion to spend the money as needed.

"If we were able to receive our appropriation from you in a lump sum, we'd be able to allocate to each campus with greater flexibility," Jarvis told the committee.

But Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said university officials could move money from one budget area to another and then ask lawmakers to shore up a budget shortfall that the switch created.

"I've been here long enough to see university presidents say 'Look, we've got a $500,000 funding disparity with this institution' when it was an adjustment they made themselves and it's been conveniently forgotten. We've been whipsawed on this before," Raggio said.

Similar concerns were voiced by Assembly Ways and Means Chairman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, and Assembly Speaker Joe Dini, D-Yerington.

The university system is currently struggling with the budget proposed by Gov. Kenny Guinn. Though showing an enrollment growth rate of 6 percent, the colleges are only in line for enough money to fund a 2 percent increase.

The Guinn plan adds up to $608 million over the next two years, but Jarvis said that's not enough and he needs the ability to spend what little money he does have in the areas that need it the most.

Jarvis was backed by officials from community colleges and universities who said greater budget flexibility is important during lean budget years.

"In today's spending model, there is some money for instruction with no money for support (services). It would be helpful for us to have the flexibility to hire a reference librarian or open the financial aid office one night per week," said Richard Moore, president of the Community College of Southern Nevada.

Moore added that he would be able to increase class sizes a bit and use the money saved there for other much-needed services.

University of Nevada, Las Vegas President Carol Harter said she needs 27 new positions to help staff UNLV's new $40 million Lied Library - but there's no money in the governor's budget for even one new hire.

The proposed funding plan would allow her to shift money from other areas to hire those new people, Harter said.

Another option would take up to 2 percent of the overall funding from schools that are underpopulated and put it into a systemwide pool. That money could be doled out to the colleges and universities that are overpopulated, Jarvis said.

The committee was also presented with a plan to study a funding disparity between schools in the northern and southern parts of the state.

In Nevada, higher education isn't funded by the state on an across-the-board, per-pupil basis that automatically gives the University of Nevada, Reno and UNLV equal amounts and as a result UNR is funded at a slightly higher level.

The independent study, to be done by MGT of America, will look at how state money is allocated to UNR, UNLV and the four community colleges in Nevada.