QUESTION 1: SCHOOL FUNDING

Thursday, Oct. 14, 2004 | 12:58 p.m.

The deadlock over raising taxes in the 2003 Legislature has spawned a proposed change in the Nevada Constitution to make sure school districts get their money upfront.

Voters will decide on Question 1, an initiative petition to require the Legislature to pass a school-support bill before it approves any other appropriations.

Bob Crowell, a Carson City School Board member, said he supports the change because school officials did not know how much money they would get for the year until August, and therefore there were problems in planning and hiring new teachers for the school year that started in September.

"Anything we can do to help fund education would move us forward," Crowell said.

But Ray Bacon, executive director of the Nevada Manufacturers Association, said the Legislature "screwed up one time in 73 sessions. I see no reason to change the constitution for that."

If passed by the voters this election, the question would appear again on the 2006 general-election ballot for approval before it became part of the state constitution.

The 2003 Legislature could not reach agreement in regular session over a proposed tax increase. The school funding bill was held until the lawmakers passed the $833.5 million tax increase that included enough money to provide support for public education.

The appropriations for the other segments of state government had already been passed in the regular session, and the Legislature cannot pass an unbalance budget.

Bacon says there is no need to change the constitution but rather to toss legislators who caused the problem out of office.

"We should penalize the people who fouled up rather than change the constitution," Bacon said.

Assemblyman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee that prepares the budget, said he doesn't see any major problem in approving the education bill first.

"I don't think it will create a lot of adjustments," Arberry said. "We want to put education first."

The idea for the initiative came from Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., and a former assemblyman.

Gibbons and his wife, Assemblywoman Dawn Gibbons, R-Reno, led the drive to gather signatures on the initiative petition to qualify it for the ballot. It required 51,337 signatures of registered voters and supporters turned in 64,193.

Some have speculated that approving the school-aid bill first will preclude it from getting additional money at the end of the session if there are extra funds available. But the Legislature could always add to its initial appropriation, Crowell said.

School aid is computed on a per-pupil basis and the state contributes to the base amount with the rest of the money coming from sales, property and other taxes.