Special Session: Legislature opens with education debate

As the long-awaited special session of the Nevada Legislature began Tuesday, the focus quickly narrowed to the potential damage to education.

Gov. Jim Gibbons called lawmakers into session to pare back the budget to match falling revenues. His plan would reduce spending and raise some new revenue for a total of $888 million.

Budget director Andrew Clinger came under fire in the Senate over the Gibbons administration's contention that K-12 education is being cut by just 2.4 percent, not the 10 percent faced by most state agencies.

Clinger explained to senators that a

10 percent General Fund cut to education translates to a 2.4 percent cut to K-12 funding overall. He said the difference is the sales and property tax money, federal funds and other revenues that go to the school districts either directly or through the state.

"It's a 10 percent cut to state funding, I don't dispute that. But is it a 10 percent cut to their budget overall? No, it's not. It's a 2.4 percent cut," Clinger said.

Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, challenged that figure as "disingenuous," a charge that Clinger said he took offense to.

The governor announced in mid-morning that he was modifying the special session proclamation to change Nevada law so the state becomes eligible for federal Race to the Top education grants. That legal change would allow school districts to consider student performance in judging how well teachers are doing, currently prohibited in Nevada.

Most of the day was spent in testimony that members of the Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means committees have been hearing from agency heads and the governor's staff for more than two weeks.

Health and Human Services Director Mike Willden told senators that cuts to his department were not as deep as originally planned for. The department is set for about $108 million in cuts - rather than Gibbons' original plan of $132 million - after some programs such as adult day care were added back into the budget.

Lawmakers questioned Willden about increased charges to Nevada families who use Nevada Check Up.

The program, designed for low-income, uninsured families, will see the cost of the service increase by up to 200 percent.

"I'm not trying to be difficult," Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, told Willden, "but how do you differentiate that from a fee? Because to me that's a fee."

"It's a fee increase, isn't it?" Raggio asked.

Willden agreed.

Gibbons said he has presented lawmakers with a plan that balances the state budget by making $888 million in either spending cuts or revenue increases.

He used his campaign Web site to chastise lawmakers saying they don't have a plan as they began the 26th special session in state history.

Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, denied that, saying they have a plan coming together, that they just haven't shared it with him to this point.