Gibbons: Shortfall may force 300 layoffs

Gov. Jim Gibbons said Tuesday balancing the state budget in the face of an $880 million shortfall may require layoffs of up to 300 state workers.

The governor met with city and county officials Monday, school district officials Tuesday and will sit down with lawmakers Wednesday to discuss how to handle the budget crisis. He meets with lawmakers today and tomorrow.

Gibbons confirmed both the $880 million figure and the 300 potential layoffs following his meeting with school officials. He said those layoffs don't include possible job losses at either the university system or the school districts.

But he said the actual number of jobs lost may be higher or lower depending on which other reductions he and legislators can agree on.

At Monday's meeting with city and county officials, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and Carson City Mayor Bob Crowell both said they heard what they needed to hear - that the governor doesn't intend to take any more revenue from local government, which was hit for some $300 million by the 2009 Legislature.

"We heard what we were hoping for, that the state is going to leave us alone," said Goodman. "We said we want the cities to work out their problems."

Both men were joined by school district officials in saying what they need when cuts are imposed is the flexibility for each local government and school district to make its own choices on what and where to cut.

"A lot of ideas were proposed that will work differently in different jurisdictions," said Washoe School District Superintendent Heath Morrison. "There has to be some flexibility."

Clark County Superintendent Walt Rulffes said districts don't want the state to make specific program cuts but leave that to each district.

He said, however, since salaries are set in contract negotiations, the districts don't have authority to reduce teacher pay.

"The only authority the school board has is layoffs," he said. "Just about any kind of cut means jobs."

Morrison said the problem for districts right now is, "we don't know the magnitude of the cuts; we don't know when we're going to have to make these cuts."

Gibbons said he told the superintendents his legal staff is looking at options to give school districts more flexibility, including potentially an executive order temporarily relaxing collective bargaining rules. But he made clear local government and school officials will get the flexibility they seek.

"Our goal is not to tell them what to cut," he said.

He also said education will probably not be hit as hard as other areas of state government.

"Some will be impacted more. Some will be impacted less," he said.

Burns said lawmakers will get two lists of ideas from the administration today.

"There's the list of things we should do and the list of recommendations we'd rather not do," he said.

The governor and legislative leadership will meet today and Thursday to start ironing out the details. They have promised to work together on a plan before calling a special session of the Legislature sometime later this month.

The tentative list, Burns said, includes up to 300 layoffs, but he and the governor said that all depends on what other decisions are agreed upon so that number is far from etched in stone.

"Three hundred is our estimate at this time," said Gibbons.

The governor will lay out the situation and at least some of his ideas on how to cope with it in next Monday's television address to Nevadans.

"In the state of the state, you can expect a description of the dire situation the state is in," he said. "You can also expect to see some of the solutions."

Asked about added furloughs or pay cuts, Burns said: "Let's be clear, this cannot be done without having an impact on salaries."

Gibbons said Monday he doubted state workers would take much more than a 6 percent salary cut before walking away from the job. Those comments were made Monday after he exited a meeting with more than 30 city and county officials.

"Grab ahold of the notion of shrinking government because it's our destiny," Burns said.