Proposal to salvage school programs may be in jeopardy

Wednesday, June 12, 2002 | 9:35 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A proposal to send $1.4 million to Nevada school districts to preserve programs that are in jeopardy due to tight finances is in danger of being scrapped.

State Budget Director Perry Comeaux recommended Tuesday that the state keep the $1.4 million to help offset an estimated budget shortfall of $240 million in state government.

The 2001 Legislature authorized $5 million to help school districts keep programs that faced possible termination because of funding. The state Board of Examiners has already disbursed $3.2 million.

Schools asked for an additional $3 million, but a committee pared the requests to $1.4 million. Included in that figure was $423,945 for math textbooks for eighth grade algebra classes in Clark County.

The examiners board, headed by Gov. Kenny Guinn, was getting ready to approve the recommendation of Comeaux when Secretary of State Dean Heller cautioned that it would "have serious consequences."

"I'm not prepared to vote for this," Heller said.

The board agreed to table a vote to allow Heller to get more information.

Guinn told Heller that the requests from the school districts came in before the state tax collection figures in March.

"March turned ugly," the governor said, referring to the lower than expected collections. He said the government faces cutting $115 million this fiscal year and $138 million next fiscal year.

Guinn said that when he talks to school officials, he asks how many new vehicles the district bought, how many vacant positions they have and how many administrators have been hired.

He was referring to the state's freeze on the purchase of some new cars and the hiring moratorium in government.

The governor said he convened a meeting of 50 leaders in government, education and other areas last year. He said he included extra money in his proposed budget for textbooks, but the group said technology was a major issue.

So the extra $10 million was shifted to school technology.

"Not one of them voted for textbooks," Guinn said. "They wanted technology."