Assembly squabbles over full-day kindergarten

Kirsten Searer and Cy Ryan

Friday, May 27, 2005 | 11:09 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Budget talks slowed Thursday after Assembly Democrats threw down the gauntlet and said they want funding for full-day kindergarten for all students in the state.

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, said he made the pitch for the funding in a meeting of legislative leaders, and Republicans in the Senate "gave me just the cold stare."

When asked if the Legislature could still end on June 6 as scheduled, Perkins said, "Ummm, that's the game plan. I'm not getting a lot of cooperation down the hall."

This morning, Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said the budget will continue to stall if legislative leaders issue ultimatums.

Republicans support making some accommodations for full-day kindergarten programs through the $100 million that Gov. Kenny Guinn allocated for remedial programs in elementary schools, he said.

But Raggio said he is upset that Democrats are refusing to move on the budget until the state funds full-day kindergarten for all students.

"If that's going to be the attitude, there's not going to be any movement," he said. "So the fault will lie with the speaker and the Assembly Democrats if this process continues to be bogged down.

"... We are not prepared in the Senate, because it's somebody's top priority who's running for governor, to say that's got to be the way it's got to be or no way. I think that message needs to be understood."

Perkins called Raggio's remarks a "cheap shot," saying he would support full-day kindergarten whether or not he was running for higher office.

"We only meet every two years and I don't think the state can wait two years for full-day kindergarten," he said.

According to several legislators at the meeting, Raggio and other Republican leaders told Democrats that they didn't have the votes in the Legislature to mandate full-day kindergarten.

But Assembly Democrats said they were unwilling to talk about the budget until Republicans agree to full-day kindergarten for all students.

"It was an ultimatum," said Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas. "It got pretty nasty in there."

The issue, legislators said, is not only the $72 million Democrats said they will need to fund the classes in the coming biennium; it's also whether each and every neighborhood school should be compelled to offer the program.

Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, said some Republicans think districts should have more choice on how to use their education dollars.

Full-day kindergarten is at the top of the Democrats' legislative priority list, with Perkins saying it would raise test scores and get children on track at an early age.

"I think full-day kindergarten is the best program that the state can put together for education," Perkins said.

It turned into a big enough issue that legislators missed a deadline Thursday to resolve their budget differences.

"We really want full-day kindergarten," said Assembly Ways and Means Committee Chairman Morse Arberry Jr. "It's not all-day babysitting."

In their closed-door budget talks Thursday, legislative leaders didn't even make it to the rest of the education budget, including the issue of university buildings, which was such a contentious issue in a closed-door meeting Wednesday that legislators stormed out.

They also have not resolved the Distributive School Account, which funds the state's K-12 schools.

"If (Perkins is) going to hold these two budgets, which are important budgets, hostage to get his way because it happens to be a top priority of his campaign, then that's an unfortunate situation," Raggio said.

If the $100 million for remedial education programs is used to fund full-day kindergarten for all schools, there would be no money left for intervention and remediation programs, Raggio said.

Raggio said Perkins' proposal would "utilize all that money starting in the second year and more on a program for continuing full-day kindergarten in the next biennium. It would all be utilizied solely for that purpose."

Perkins said Raggio's account of the Democratic side is "not an accurate portrayal."

"We moved so far in the last two or three days on some of the issues that he needed and wanted done, and he's not moved at all," Perkins said.

Perkins said Democrats and Republicans were "99 percent" resolved on the state's capital improvement budget for university buildings before talks broke down over a $25 million project favored by Arberry for a new teaching hospital in downtown Las Vegas.

The idea popped up at the end of budget negotiations and surprised many legislative leaders.

The proposed $250 million facility would partner the University of Nevada medical school and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and the building would host cutting-edge research and major organ transplants.

While Las Vegas has to find the rest of the $250 million for the facility, Arberry said the $25 million in state money could go straight to construction costs and would be an indication of support from the state.

Arberry said the center is important to the development of the 61 acres city wants to develop near downtown Las Vegas, as well as to families that would otherwise have to travel to Utah or California for transplants.

Originally, the money was billed as planning funds, but Raggio balked.

"It's $25 million to plan, which is a lot of planning," said Raggio, who declined to comment further on the budget negotiations.

Arberry now says the funds could be diverted to "bricks and mortar."

Las Vegas City Manager Doug Selby said the city would use the money as the Legislature sees fit, even if it goes to construction. The $25 million was meant to get the project on its feet, Selby said, including costs of an architect and other initial stages.

As for the rest of the money, the city will seek donations from corporations and the private sector, as well as bonds that could be repaid through tax increments or profits yielded from the facility after it is up and running, Selby said.

The state's congressional delegation is also looking for federal money, he said. But the $25 million from the state could spur some of that activity, he said.

"It always helps to show there's somebody out there supporting you," Selby said.

Lawmakers still have several differences to work out. Some of the conflicts are between projects in Northern and Southern Nevada. Arberry noted Raggio's priorities, which include a $32 million math and science building at UNR.

"We're just trying to make sure there's a balance," Arberry said. "Tit for tat."

Most of the budget differences lie in education funding, including raises for teachers and school employees. The Senate Finance Committee and the Assembly Ways and Means Committee did meet jointly Thursday morning to resolve some issues dividing them, including:

The Assembly decided to go along with the Senate and keep the state's Washington, D.C., lobbying office, which they originally voted to close.

The joint committee sliced $1.5 million from the budget by deleting the 17 new officers recommended by the governor for the High Desert State Prison near Indian Springs. Prison officials had argued they needed the extra correctional officers because the design of the prison compromised safety conditions.

The Senate agreed with the Assembly to provide $195,000 a year to support more transitional housing services for female inmates in Southern Nevada. Las Vegas started an EVOLVE program to help both female and male inmates to return to society, but a federal grant is expected to end.

The committees voted to pump an additional $1.9 million over the next two years into the state Division of Water Resources to hire 11 new employees and make improvements in technology to take care of a backlog of applications for water rights in Nevada.

The state Tourism Commission won't have money to share an office in Mexico with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. The committees wiped out the $100,000 a year the governor had put in his budget to give the state a presence.

The adult group care homes that care for 411 aged are going to get a $41 per month increase per patient that will cost the state an additional $205,000 a year.

The Senate accepted the suggestion of the Assembly to add an estimated $750,000 over the next two years to provide AIDS medication for 38 additional clients next year and 65 more in fiscal 2007.

In the budget for the Western Interstate Compact on Higher Education, the committees agreed to provide four new slots for dental students per year; five new mental health slots and five new pharmacy slots to allow students to attend professional schools out of state.

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