Committee cuts $100 million from Guinn plan

Friday, May 16, 2003 | 11:49 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Senate Finance Committee has slashed nearly $100 million from Gov. Kenny Guinn's recommended budget package for the coming two years.

The committee is moving closer to final approval of spending programs for state agencies and the educational system.

Gov. Kenny Guinn recommended $924 million in taxes to balance his $4.8 billion, two-year budget. The committee set the number at $828 million.

But that Senate total different from that of its counterpart, the Assembly Ways and Means Committee. No final figure is available from that committee but it is expected to call for more than $1 billion to balance the budget.

The panels were scheduled to meet today to resolve their differences, the biggest of which is over aid to public schools.

The Assembly committee proposed giving schoolteachers a 4 percent raise this year and 4 percent next year. That would require adding $150 million to the governor's budget. The Senate stayed with the recommendation of Guinn to give the teachers a 2 percent raise this year and nothing next year.

The Senate scrapped Guinn's program for full-day kindergarten in 30 percent of Nevada's schools, and that change would save about $24.2 million. The Assembly went along with the suggestions of superintendents of local school districts to start a pilot program to spend about $6 million over the two years.

The Senate committee endorsed Guinn's suggestion to continue $2,000 signing bonuses for new teachers, and more in special areas.