Panel approves tougher Millennium Scholarship rules

Thursday, April 10, 2003 | 9:01 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Future students would have to achieve higher standards to qualify for and keep the $10,000 Millennium Scholarship under a bill approved Wednesday by a Senate committee.

Senate Bill 448, passed by the Senate Government Affairs Committee, also allows state Treasurer Brian Krolicki to sell off half of the $1 billion settlement from the tobacco companies in order to safeguard the money.

Nevada high school students now must have a 3.0 grade point average to be eligible for the scholarships. That would rise to 3.1 for the graduating classes of 2005 and 2006 and to 3.25 for the classes after that.

To keep the scholarship in college, students would have to achieve a grade point average of 2.6 starting this year. The present level is a 2.0 grade point average.

The higher standards are an effort to stretch out the money and to see that students with better academic records are served.

Krolicki said the payments cigarette companies are paying to the state are on shaky ground. SB448, which goes to the floor of the Senate, would allow him to sell half of the debt at a reduced price.

He told the committee earlier this week that the scholarship fund could be in trouble by 2006 if nothing is done. With his plan, he said, the money would last until 2016.

Two years ago the Senate passed a securitization plan but it died in the Assembly.

Philip Morris is scheduled to make a $16 million payment by April 15. But the company has said it may not be able to comply with the agreed deadline because of a $10 billion judgment against it in Illinois. It said it must post a $12 billion bond in order to appeal the jury award.