Governor says university asking for moon

By Cy Ryan

Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2008 | 12:09 p.m.

CARSON CITY – Gov. Jim Gibbons says the university regents are “asking for the moon” in their request to increase the system budget by 10 percent, rather than abiding by his directive to lower spending by 14 percent in the coming two years.

“I do not see the reality of being able to meet the increased request of higher education at this time,” Gibbons said today.

“If things turn around we can do more but things will depend on the economy,” he said.

The regents, at its meeting last week, agreed to seek a 10 percent increase to the $1.3 billion state budget approved in 2007. They said they needed these enhancements to provide a quality education.

At the same time, the state Board of Education complied Friday with the demands of the governor to slash the school support budget by 14.2 percent.

The public schools and the Nevada System of Higher Education received 54.5 percent of the state’s general fund from the 2007 Legislature.

Gibbons said his budget office will have to shave the request of the university. But he says he’s willing to work with the university and the public school officials in seeing if some of their higher priorities might be met.

“If things turn around we can do more but things will depend on the economy,” the governor said. He’s bound by the predictions made by the Economic Forum on how much tax money will be coming in during the next two fiscal years.

“I cannot spend the state into debt nor would I want to,” Gibbons said.

The education board decided there would be no cost of living raises for K-12 teachers in each of the next two fiscal years; the $2,000 signing bonuses for new teachers would be abolished and the extra benefits for teaching in high risk schools would be ended.

The budget approved by the education board enlarges the size of the first through third grades by one student and cuts in half the money to allocate for textbooks. It also cancels some programs in the schools.

Gibbons said the education board “sees the reality of what we are dealing with --- an economy that doesn’t support what we had in the past.

“No one likes to face budget reductions but at least I give the K through 12 and the (state) Department of Education credit for trying to deal with the reality of having lower-than-expected revenues,” the governor said.

The elective board of education doesn’t “have an alternative. They cannot raise tuition to meet some of their expenses. They are pretty much limited by statute, by law and the Economic Forum,” he said.

University Chancellor Jim Rogers today released letters from Clark County School Superintendent Walt Rulffes and Washoe County School Superintendent Paul Dugan written prior to the decisions of the state Board of Education to cut the future budget.

Rulffes said in his July 31st letter that Clark County’s per pupil funding is already close to last in the nation. He said the reductions already made and the ones to come “will be eroding essential services for students, which I fully expected to become evident in the achievement level of our students.”

With these past reductions and the expected future cuts, Rulffes said the district can’t do “a decent job for students” and improve the students who are going to the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Dugan, in his Aug. 4 letter to Rogers, said that a 14 percent cut in state educational funding will ensure that Nevada is last in the nation in financing public schools.

Cy Ryan may be reached at (775) 687 5032 or [email protected]