Friday, July 11, 2003 | 11:07 a.m.
The Supreme Court voted 6-1 to send the Legislature back to work to fund school budgets and raise money to balance the budget. The court waived the requirement that two-thirds of the Legislature vote for new taxes. Justice Bill Maupin dissented. Excerpts from the decision, written by Chief Justice Deborah Agosti:
"We order the Legislature to fulfill its obligations under the Constitution of Nevada by raising sufficient revenues to fund education while maintaining a balanced budget."
"Due to the impasse that has resulted from the procedural and general constitutional requirement of passing revenue measures by a two-thirds majority, we conclude that this procedural requirement must give way to the substantive and specific constitutional mandate to fund public education."
" ... the Legislature has thus far failed in its obligation to support and maintain the public school system."
"The Legislature's failure to fulfill its constitutional duties by the beginning of the new fiscal year has precipitated an imminent fiscal emergency. Nevada now faces an unprecedented budget crisis. Schools have not been funded for the upcoming school year. Teachers have not been hired. Educational programs have been eliminated. Planning for the academic year is not possible, and the state's bond rating may be jeopardized."
"Our Constitution's framers strongly believed that each child should have the opportunity to receive a basic education. Their views resulted in a Constitution that places great importance on education. Its provisions demonstrate that education is a basic constitutional right in Nevada."
"Our Legislature has failed to accomplish its constitutionally mandated tasks of funding Nevada's public education system and balancing the budget."
"It is a waste of public resources to simply tell the Legislature to forge on and deliberate and negotiate further, since that body has failed to perform its constitutionally required function. As a result, this court is faced with the onerous task of weighing the various constitutional provisions and, in effect, prioritizing them."
"The framers (of the Constitution) have elevated the public education of the youth of Nevada to a position of constitutional primacy. Public education is a right that the people, and the youth, of Nevada are entitled, through the Constitution, to access. If the procedural two-thirds revenue vote requirement in effect denies the public its expectation of access to public education, then the two-thirds requirement must yield to the specific substantive educational right."
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