State college startup money lost in shuffle

Jennifer Knight

Tuesday, June 5, 2001 | 10:25 a.m.

Amid chaos in the last minutes of the 2001 Legislature, money to get the state college up and running was either forgotten or passed over for lack of time, according to university officials.

"To the best knowledge the bill did not pass," Chancellor Jane Nichols said this morning. "It was crazy down there last night."

Legislators were expected to approve $1 million in startup money before the midnight deadline for adjournment today, but failed to do so, Nichols said. A hold up of that money could delay the opening of the college.

Higher education officials hope that the startup money for the college will be dealt when the Legislature is called into special session for redistricting, but there's no firm decision on what the agenda will include or when the session will be held.

The Legislature allocated $13.4 million in construction money for college's first building as well as $7 million in operating costs for the second year during Sunday's session.

The opening date for the college is tentatively set for fall of 2002, with an inaugural class of 500 full-time students. The number was cut in half after lower-than-expected revenues forced higher education cuts.

Richard Moore, founding president of the state college, postponed a meeting today of the Nevada State College Foundation board to discuss a plan to raise $10 million in private donations to fulfill its end of the agreement with the Legislature.

Plans to hire new staff will also be put on hold until the startup money is approved.

The college will still proceed on Wednesday with the award for the winning architect of the college's first building, at Wagon Wheel Drive off of U.S. 95 in Henderson. The winner will receive a $33,000 cash prize and a contract.

Just two weeks ago, system officials were asked to cut $36.8 million from the higher education budget. Rather than cut the state college project, regents chose to make up for the disparity by asking legislators to draw more heavily from an estate tax fund.

Higher education did win some other new programs, including:

* Teachers got a 4 percent raise after some fancy financing allowed the system to pull from a multitude of revenues.

* UNLV gained $7 million to begin a dental school.

* A law clinic for the Boyd Law School at UNLV was partially funded, which will be enough for it to gain full accreditation.

* A library at University of Nevada, Reno was fully funded by the Legislature at $22 million.

* Truckee Meadows Community College will get $8.5 million to buy property at the Reno Town Hall.

* The proposal by Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, to audit the university and community college system passed after the midnight deadline, which leaves its legality in question.

Other higher education programs never made it out of the Legislature.

A plan to provide $600,000 in scholarship money for single parents with low incomes never came to light, and an appropriation that would have created a writing program to combat homelessness stalled as well.

Plans to separate the Community College of Southern Nevada's Cheyenne campus from the Charleston campus changed. Assemblyman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, had the language scaled down to "allow a study of the organization of the community college system." That plan passed with the govenor's approval.