Budget passes in final hour

Tuesday, June 3, 2003 | 11:14 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Legislature knows how to spend money but it doesn't know how to raise it.

In the closing hours of the 72nd annual session, the lawmakers rushed through budget bills to keep the government running starting July 1. But it never took a vote on a tax plan to pay for it.

Gov. Kenny Guinn is to announce today when he will call the lawmakers into special session. Government sources say the session will begin Wednesday.

The Legislature by law was supposed to end at midnight Monday, but a Nevada Supreme Court ruling allowed lawmakers to keep going until 1 a.m. to make up an hour the session lost to daylight-saving time.

With about 10 minutes to spare before the Legislature closed shop, the Senate approved Assembly Bill 533, which allocates most of the $4.9 billion to run state government and provide money to public schools and the University and Community College System of Nevada.

The Assembly had approved the budget 24-18 and it cleared the Senate 17-3-1.

In the final hours the Assembly approved the authorization act to allow state agencies and others to accept and use federal funds, fees, grants and donations. The vote was 27-15. The Senate had approved the bill 21-0.

The total state budget when all money is calculated is an estimated $12 billion.

But Senate Bill 508, which provides $226 million over the next two years for class-size reductions in the public schools, apparently didn't pass.

The Senate approved the bill 20-1 but it apparently never made it out of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said the money will pay for 1,887 teachers in fiscal year 2004 and 1,953 in 2005. The bill, which was the subject of intense negotiations between the Senate and Assembly, maintains the 16-to-1 student-teacher ratio in grades 1 and 2, and 19-to-1 in grade 3.

It permits the 15 rural counties flexibility, allowing a 22-to-1 ratio in grades 1-3 and up to 25-to-1 in grades 4 and 5. Clark and Washoe counties said the flexibility would force them to build additional classrooms. In Clark County alone, the district said it would need 12 new schools if it used a different class ratio.

The general fund budget shows an estimated 55 percent going to the public schools and the university system. Another 12 percent is ticketed for Medicaid, the program that provides medical care for the poor.

The pay bill to give state workers a 2 percent cost of living raise next year was approved by the Assembly 26-15-1 and the Senate 19-1.

The Senate agreed with an Assembly amendment to set aside $16 million to fix the problem with the communications system of the Nevada Highway Patrol, which is using radio frequencies that are not approved by the Federal Communications Commission.

Both houses on the final day approved a $218.5 million building program for the next two years.

Earlier in the day it was clear from the votes in the Assembly on the budget bills that any tax package would have trouble getting the required 28 votes.

At 12:45 a.m. Raggio announced he would not allow a vote on the tax plan. Only 15 minutes were left before final adjournment at 1 a.m.

He said there were a lot of amendments to be offered by senators. Even if the Senate could pass the bill, it would not be in time for the Assembly to act.

"It would be unfair to the senators to try to hurry through a bill of this importance," he said.