Lawmakers wrestle with unresolved issues

Thursday, June 2, 2005 | 10:58 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Although the deadlock over the state budget has been broken, lawmakers still must resolve their differences over Gov. Kenny Guinn's plan to give a $300 million rebate to auto owners and end the tug-of-war over raising the minimum wage.

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, said Wednesday that leadership in the Senate and Assembly would meet today in an effort to reach a compromise on the rebate issue before the session comes to a close on Monday.

Guinn has threatened to veto the budget, which legislators came to agreement on Wednesday, if the $300 million rebate is not approved by lawmakers.

The Senate and Assembly gave final approval Wednesday to more than 50 bills, including one regulating payday loans.

Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said Assembly Bill 484 will cure many of the abuses inflicted on the public by the quick-loan businesses.

Among the changes, there must be a disclosure of the fees that could be charged, and a limit on interest charged on a loan that is in default will be the prime rate plus 10 percent.

Buckley said there won't be any more treble damages charged and there will be only one $25 penalty for giving a loan company a bad check.

The Assembly accepted Senate amendments to the bill and shipped it to Guinn.

But the Assembly rejected Senate amendments to Assembly Bill 87 on the minimum wage issue, setting up the possibility of a conference committee to hash out differences.

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, said the Senate version "was an insult to the voters" who approved an initiative petition last November. She said the Assembly bill started out to mirror the issue on the ballot and give those making $5.15 an hour a $1 an hour increase.

The Senate plan boosts the minimum wage to $6.40 an hour, but the issue would be presented to the voters in 2006, along with the initiative petition.

Still to be worked out between the two houses is whether to allow Nevadans to use the Internet to purchase lower priced prescription drugs from Canada. The Senate said the plan would not be effective until the federal government approves it.

Another sticking point between the two houses is Senate Bill 394 that would classify golf courses as "open space" land that would be taxed at a lower rate. The Senate refused Wednesday to agree with Assembly amendments. The issue might go to a conference committee.

But a big stumbling block toward adjournment was removed when agreement was reached on issues involving the budget, including mandatory kindergarten. Assembly Democrats pushed for more than $70 million during the next two years to start kindergarten in every school in Nevada.

The compromise with Senate Republicans called for $22 million in fiscal 2007 to begin kindergarten in high-risk schools. Seventy-eight of the 323 elementary schools already have all-day kindergarten.

Guinn had proposed allocating $50 million a year to the failing and near failing schools to pay for programs for improvement, including kindergarten. He said it should be up to the schools to decide what they want to do with the money.

Under the Senate-Assembly agreement, $22 million would come out of the governor's $50 million proposal in fiscal 2007, leaving $28 million for schools to use how they wanted it.

The Senate and Assembly leadership agreed to provide $44.2 million additional to give state workers, schoolteachers and university personnel an extra 2 percent raise in fiscal 2007. The governor had recommended 2 percent per year, but the lawmakers agreed to give an additional raise in the second year of the biennium.

Ken Lange, executive director of the Nevada State Education Association that represents teachers, said he was generally pleased with the decisions of the leadership. He said the suggested pay raises "will take us further down the road to retaining and attracting high quality educators."

Lange said the committees only budgeted a "modest increase" in per pupil spending. He said he still wants a legislative study to examine whether Nevada's funding for education is adequate.

The Senate agreed with the Assembly leadership to include more than $4 million over the next two years for a 4.6 percent increase due to inflation in purchasing textbooks.

The Senate Finance Committee agreed with the Assembly Ways and Means Committee to provide extra money to bring the salaries of the faculty at Community College of Southern Nevada up to par with other community colleges. This will take $9.8 million over six years to gradually lift the pay.

The budget also provides for a 2.5 percent merit raise for faculty in the higher education system.

Jim Richardson, representing the Nevada Faculty Alliance composed of professors and instructors, said the approval of the budget was a "mixed bag." He said the extra money for salaries was fine, but he said the university lost $10 million because of an adjustment for projected lower than anticipated enrollment.

The leadership agreed to pump an additional $44 million into nursing programs to train more students. They gave an extra $4.3 million to the University of Nevada School of Medicine to increase enrollment.

The Assembly Ways and Means Committee agreed to restore $1 million it has sliced from the dental school at UNLV, which is expected to permit the enrollment to grow from 225 students to 300 and have a lower student-to-teacher ratio in the higher grades.

An agreement was made to provide $6 million in economic development money to the Nevada Development Authority in Las Vegas. Of that amount, $500,000 must go to the Urban and Latino Chambers of Commerce.