State AFL-CIO, schools join Supreme Court suit

Monday, July 7, 2003 | 9:19 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- State employees, union workers, the school districts of Clark and Washoe counties and the university system have joined Gov. Kenny Guinn in asking the Nevada Supreme Court to force the Legislature to act on a tax package.

The Nevada State Employees Association, the Nevada State AFL-CIO, the two school districts and the Board of Regents submitted briefs Thursday urging the court to find the Legislature in violation of its constitutional duties for failing to pass a bill to fund the public schools and to approve a tax package to balance the budget.

The deadline for filing briefs is 5 p.m. today. The Senate has approved an $873 million tax plan and funding for the schools.

A group of 15 Republican Assemblymen is blocking passage until the proposed $4.9 billion budget is reduced and the requirement for new taxes is only $704 million.

Guinn filed suit last Tuesday, the start of the fiscal year, after the lawmakers were unable to reach an agreement on a tax plan and did not pass the bill for $1.6 billion for the public schools over the next two years. The governor wants the Legislature to comply with the Nevada Constitution within a set time limit.

A brief from the state employees and the labor union said the Supreme Court must respect other branches of government but "all branches must respect the state constitution."

The friend-of-the court brief, prepared by attorney Andrew Kahn, said that while courts will not tell a Legislature or a governor how to exercise discretion given them by the constitution, "courts will order them to make some choice without further unreasonable delay."

Kahn said the court ordering the Legislature to comply with the Constitution is "much less judicial intervention in school financing than most states have already seen." For instance, the courts in 14 states have ruled that school funding systems violated state constitutions because there was not enough money.

The Nevada Constitution provides that the Legislature must finance the school system and must pass enough taxes to balance the budget.

The Legislature approved $3.2 billion for the operation of state government but the $1.6 billion biennial school aid bill has not been passed. Lawmakers must approve an estimated $870 million in taxes to keep the budget balanced.

The Clark County School District, in a brief prepared by attorney C. W. Hoffman, Jr., said the delay makes it harder to recruit new teachers for the opening of school.

The district said it plans to open 12 new schools this year but the hiring of teachers is "contingent upon the level of funding" for wages and supplies.

Seventy percent of the new teachers hired for the Clark County School District come from out of state, Hoffman said.

"Every day that passes means fewer and fewer are willing or even able to relocate their families across the country," Hoffman.

At this time last year, the district had signed 803 new teachers and another 201 were pending. This year, 565 applicants have accepted contracts and another 128 have not yet responded.

Because of the "uncertain fiscal environment," the district has moved about 411 teachers from special programs into regular classrooms, according to the brief.

The school district said 87 percent of every dollar in the budget is spent to pay teachers and others.

"The Legislature's failure, thus far, to fund education has had extensive personnel and human resources impacts," upon the district, Hoffman said.

The state distributed $60 million to the school districts in Nevada last Tuesday. The next apportionment is due in August.

The university system, through its general counsel Thomas Ray, intervened in the Guinn suit in an effort to convince the court.

The state workers and the university fear that the lawmakers may reopen the budget already passed and start making reductions in their spending programs for fiscal 2003-05.

Part of the budget already approved provides for a 2 percent pay raise for state workers and university faculty in July 2004. There have been reports that could be delayed or canceled as part of a compromise.

The Nevada State Education Association, which represents schoolteachers, is also planning to file a brief in support of the governor's position.