Higher education gets boost from subcommittee

Friday, May 25, 2001 | 11:26 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A state building program that includes more than $290 million, with 60 percent going to the University and Community College System of Nevada, has been adopted by a Senate-Assembly budget subcommittee.

"We did pretty good," said Joe Crowley, the chief lobbyist for the university system. The budget includes startup money for the state college in Henderson and for the beginning of a dental school building at UNLV.

The biggest single project to be started in the next two years is a $64.5 million new library at the University of Nevada, Reno. Of the total, $22 million will come from the state, the remainder from donations and student fees.

The subcommittee closely followed the recommendations of Gov. Kenny Guinn, who proposed $306.5 million in new projects and maintenance programs.

It knocked out the proposed purchase for the state of the Las Vegas building of Employers Insurance Company of Nevada. Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, recommended those savings be put into a $5 million transitional building to house the dental school; $1 million for planning for a dental school building at UNLV and another $1 million for dental equipment for the program at the Reno campus.

The only controversy flared during approval of a $24.4 million academic and student services building for the state college in Henderson. Of the total, $14.4 million will come from the state.

Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, complained this was a "waste of money," and it is located at the end of the Las Vegas Valley, making it inaccessible. The college would concentrate on turning out school teachers and nurses.

Coffin said UNLV was already doing a "good job" in producing teachers. He said he was "troubled" by the new management at the school. He did not name names, but he referred to a state Attorney General's Investigation that sharply criticized Orlando Sandoval for some discrepancies when he was an executive at the Community College of Southern Nevada.

Sandoval is second in charge at Henderson.

"When we (the legislative money committees) face an agency head, we chew the hell out of them," Coffin said. But the Board of Regents didn't do anything to those named in the report, he indicated.

During the session, Assemblyman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, who headed the subcommittee, told Coffin to limit his remarks to the project and not to talk about personalities. But Coffin said he would not mention any names.

After the session, Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, said he was disappointed that Coffin "took on some of the people moving the project forward. That was not relevant."

The new location, Perkins said, is within 15 minutes of most areas and 30 minutes away by freeway from the other end of the valley. "It is accessible," he said.

Although UNLV is doing a "good job" in producing school teachers, Perkins said they only graduate 700 and the school district has to hire 1,200 from out of state. The Henderson college will develop teachers at one-third of the cost at UNLV.

Arberry also made a switch in the building program. He eliminated the $20 million for a new health sciences-biotech building on the West Charleston Campus of the Community College of Southern Nevada. In its place he appropriated $19 million for a telecommunications building at the Cheyenne campus of CCSN.

The subcommittee agreed to spend $1 million to put the final touches on the trouble-plagued veterans home in Boulder City, slated to open later this year.

Other major projects approved were a $49 million phase III of the High Desert State Prison in Southern Nevada; a $2.8 million new state motor pool at the UNLV Campus and $3.5 million for expansion of the Veterans Cemetery in Boulder City.

The subcommittee agreed to spend $8.8 million for planning, design and utility work toward a $66 million science and engineering complex at UNLV. Raggio told UNLV President Carol Harter that she should look for private money to help the state fund the project in 2003.

He said the state would not have a lot of bonding capacity to finance such a large project, and Harter said she would try to come up with some money.

Also, $1.2 million was set aside for furnishings for the Southern Science Center at the Desert Research Institute in Las Vegas; $3.5 million for furnishing the science Building on the West Charleston Campus of CCSN; $19 million for renovation and expansion of Wright Hall at UNLV and $300,000 for advance planning for an addition to the UNLV Student Services Building and renovation of Frazier Hall.

The subcommittee agreed to split $15 million among the campuses for maintenance.

In the package was $10 million for energy retrofit projects in state buildings.

The recommendations of the subcommittee are routinely accepted by the Senate Finance Committee and the Assembly Ways and Means Committee.