University funding stalls progress on budget

Kirsten Searer

Thursday, May 26, 2005 | 9:53 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Key legislative committees approved several major budgets Wednesday with relative ease, but talks came to a halt after Assembly and Senate leaders were unable to compromise on university funding.

Legislative leaders met for almost an hour behind closed doors before deciding to cancel a public meeting to finalize the capital improvements budget. It was the second budget meeting canceled Wednesday by frustrated legislators who hadn't come to a consensus.

Still, leaders said they're on track to finishing the state's next budget -- and the 120-day session -- on time June 6.

"It's not unusual for these negotiations to go this way and have disagreements between the houses," Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, said.

The university system has prioritized $67 million in new buildings, plus improvements to existing buildings totaling $20.5 million.

Legislative leaders have said that Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, has a list of buildings and improvements in Northern Nevada that he hopes to secure this year.

Top priorities for the Board of Regents includes a virtual laboratory at the Desert Research Institute in Reno called CAVE, an acronym for Computer Automatic Virtual Environment.

The building would cost an estimated $14.4 million in state funds, plus $3.47 million in other funds.

UNR is also seeking a new science and math building that would cost the state an estimated $32 million, plus $18 million in other funds.

Assemblywoman Chris Giunhigliani, D-Las Vegas, said legislators disagreed on whether to make their priorities the same as those of the Board of Regents.

"We're still stuck on policy," she said.

Perkins called Wednesday's meeting "bizarre," but said he thinks the differences can be worked out in coming days.

He and other legislators have said that budget staff members are getting nervous that major decisions about the one-shot surplus money still haven't been made.

"My guess is in the next couple of days we get back together on this same thing," Perkins said.

Raggio left a meeting Wednesday before talking to reporters, but he has been tight-lipped about his priorities heading into final budget talks.

Still, for the most part, budget talks have been going smoothly. Committees in the Assembly and Senate approved Medicaid budgets Wednesday that largely mirrored each other.

The biggest bones of contention remain in the higher education and K-12 education budgets, though there are a few smaller discrepancies between the Assembly and Senate in other budgets.

For example, Assembly Democrats are holding out to close the Washington, D.C., lobbying office, which some leaders have fought for years, saying the congressional delegation does the bulk of lobbying in Washington.

Also, Assembly Ways and Means Chairman Morse Arberry has been pushing for several hundred thousand dollars for economic development in West Las Vegas.

The idea is supported by many, though some wonder if Arberry's plan to push the money through the Las Vegas Urban Chamber of Commerce and the Las Vegas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce would be better done through a public board.

"You can't give it directly to the private sector," said Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt, who oversees economic development in her position and supports new money for West Las Vegas, the historically economically depressed area near Bonanza Road and Martin Luther King Boulevard.

At issue are several questions involving education, including Gov. Kenny Guinn's plan to put $100 million into elementary remedial programs -- which Democrats say should be spread throughout K-12 education -- and Democrats' plan to fund full-day kindergarten for all students.

Much of the differences between the Senate and Assembly still rest on education funding, including health care costs for employees in the K-12 education system, the cost of inflation for the textbook fund, the cost for merit pay for professional employees in the university system and how much of a raise to give state employees and teachers.