Budget includes more for schools, health care

Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2003 | 11:05 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The enhancements in Gov. Kenny Guinn's proposed $4.89 billion budget for the next two years include 30 percent more full-time kindergarten classes, bonuses for teachers who stay in at-risk schools and expanded low-cost health insurance programs for children and seniors.

The spending program, presented to a joint session of the Nevada Legislature Monday, proposes a 33.9 percent increase in spending over the next two years to the present budget that has been reduced because of a downturn in tax revenues.

The second-term Republican governor is calling for a hefty tax increase.

"I refuse to balance this budget on the backs of our children, senior citizens and the poor," Guinn told the lawmakers in his State of the State address.

Including federal funds and other fees, the total budget will increase from $11 billion in this biennium to $13.3 billion in the coming two years.

The Senate Finance Committee and the Assembly Ways and Means Committee begin a joint hearing today on the Guinn budget. They will take testimony for two weeks and then the full Legislature comes into session Feb. 3.

Most of the increase will handle growth. To take care of an expected 13,000 new students in public schools will require an additional $310 million during the next two years. The governor says an additional $90.6 million is needed at the University and Community College System for enrollment increases and $134 million is going for higher caseloads in welfare and Medicaid.

After those increases, education and human resources would receive the majority of the enhancements. The governor also set aside $2 million for the state to continue its legal fight to stop the high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

Broken down, the budget provides 54.9 percent for education, compared with 52.5 percent two years ago; 28.4 percent for human services compared with 27.4 percent in the 2001-2003 biennium; and 9.4 percent for public safety, down from 10.8 percent two years ago. Guinn suggests spending $24.2 million to start full-time kindergarten classes at 416 at-risk schools. They would start at schools where there are high numbers of free and reduced lunches served. This would be the beginning of a "phase-in" program to have full-time kindergarten in all schools. The budget provides $37.8 million, or $50 per student, for textbooks, in addition to the basic support for public schools. There would be $3,000 stipends for teachers in areas where there are shortages, such as math, special education and English as a second language, and for psychologists. There would be a $2, 000 annual bonus for teachers who remain at at-risk schools.

This would be in addition to the 2 percent pay raise Guinn includes in the budget for teachers effective July. Teachers were supposed to get a 4 percent raise last year but received only a 2 percent raise due to a shortage of tax revenue.

The state will provide basic support for students that would rise 7.6 percent over the biennium to $4,291 per student. School superintendents wanted an additional $900 million to bring Nevada up to the national average, which in 2000 was $7,524.

But Guinn's chief of staff, Marybel Batjer, said there was not enough money to bring the support level up to the national average. It must be done in phases, she said, because of the high cost.

A $2,000 signing bonus for new teachers continues for the next two years.

Enrollment at the University and Community College System of Nevada is expected to grow by 5,500 students over the next two years. The Guinn budget proposed to fund the university system at an 86 percent formula, an additional $80 million, over the biennium. The current formula is at 79 percent.

The governor will not include any state money to replace the estate tax, which is being discontinued by the federal government. He plans to recommend the $90 million in the tax be spent down.

Guinn is putting an extra $5.2 million into the state's Check-Up program to provide low-cost health insurance to children of the working poor. That will expand the program from its present 25,000 participants to 32,000 by the end of the biennium.

For the first time, the state is putting money into the Senior RX program, a low-cost prescription drug insurance program for the elderly. An extra $5 million will raise the enrollment from 7,500 to 12,000.

The program is for people who earn less than $21,500. Guinn is proposing a change so the eligibility will be increased to $28,000 for a household.

Funding is provided for 90 additional disability waiver slots to take care the waiting list for services. This will cost $2.1 million. Guinn will put aside $600,000 to create a mental health crisis team to provide services to mentally ill clients in hospital emergency rooms.

There are payment increases for people who provide care to the disabled through home- and community-based services. And there will be more money for those who provide physical, respiratory, occupational, speed and audiology therapy.

There is $2.6 million set aside for expanded Medicaid coverage for the physically disabled, adult group-care programs and the mentally retarded.

The governor wants to waive the assets test for the child health assurance program in Medicaid to make it easier for pregnant women to get into the program and get pre-natal care. That was proposed two years ago but was cut when the budget was reduced. Guinn estimates 2,600 additional children will be covered by Medicaid as a result of this action.

There are no increases in rates for physicians or nursing homes for caring for Medicaid patients. They had been due for increases last July but those were frozen in the budget crisis.

The governor wants to allocate an increased $5 million to pay for the transfer of child welfare services from the state to Clark and Washoe counties. Budget Director Perry Comeaux said there is money also for treatment of more than 200 severely emotional children in this program. That money was frozen when the state encountered its financial problems.

The budget provides enough money to reopen the Summit View juvenile center in Clark County and for it to be state-operated. The detention facility was closed last year.

Guinn intends to cut 500 positions of the 1,500 unfilled jobs in state government. But he intends to add 429 new positions.