College cost is overstated, Perkins says

Jeffrey Libby

Tuesday, April 10, 2001 | 11:23 a.m.

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, said Monday he is "dumbfounded" that legislators and regents have given credence to the $1.3 billion in construction costs projected for the proposed Nevada State College at Henderson.

"There's no way the state could spend $1.3 billion in 16 years or even build out the site in 16 years," Perkins said in a phone interview. "Common sense should tell you that the figures don't jibe with what we're trying to do here."

University system Chancellor Jane Nichols said that limited state funds could mean that the college, if approved by legislators, would be built over as many as 40 years.

Perkins said that kind of money might even have to be spread over 50 to 100 years.

But few have questioned the billion-dollar figure itself, including Perkins. Regent Chairwoman Thalia Dondero also has called the dollar amount a realistic estimate.

University system Regent Steve Sisolak bristled at Perkins' suggestion that he or any other university official should have known better than to take at face value the cost estimates produced by Henderson officials.

Henderson city planners submitted the projected construction costs as part of an official application in March to acquire 555 acres of federal land for a college site. The document outlined plans for seven college buildings and make land improvements over 16 years.

"They're the ones doing the work," Sisolak said. "They're the ones picking the site. They chose the size of the locations. And they came up with the dollar figures. The regents never came up with those numbers. Those numbers came out of Henderson City Hall.

"And the same folks that gave us those numbers gave us that site. So why shouldn't we have given those numbers any credence?"

Perkins, who has led the effort to start Nevada's first state college in his hometown, also downplayed recent statements by legislators and regents suggesting that Henderson officials may be planning an institution on a larger scale than the college first proposed in 1999. At that time the college was billed as a long-term solution to teacher and nursing shortages in Southern Nevada.

"I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that there's nothing sinister going on here," Perkins said.

Instead, Perkins said, it's the opposite. The university system has been occupied with what it does best: higher education. The city, for its part, has been addressing land-use policy and zoning questions.

"In a number of conversations city attorneys had with folks, they saw there was not full comprehension among university regents with regard to land-acquisition issues," Perkins said.

But if Henderson city attorneys were less than impressed with regents' grasp of land-use issues, Perkins was no less critical of the city planners' understanding of state funding issues.

John Rinaldi, survey and properties manager for Henderson, submitted the report for the city. Rinaldi called the figures "rough estimates" last week. But he stood behind them.

The numbers were drawn up for the application with the Bureau of Land Management, Perkins said. The process was expedited, since Nevada Sen. Harry Reid's office is involved in helping the state acquire the land, Perkins said.

Henderson planners drew up the numbers without input from university system officials.

Nichols, Dondero and founding college President Richard Moore said last week they had no inkling of the long-term cost estimate from Henderson planners before a Sun story was published.

At least four legislators also have expressed surprise at the existence of long-term estimates. In the two-year debate of the college, no such figure has been offered as part of public discussion.