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Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, confirmed today he is the hold-out on the university system’s budget.
Leadership has been stalled since Friday over how much they can afford to restore to the system’s budget, which was chopped by 35.9 percent in the governor’s proposed funding plan.
The core group of legislative leaders negotiating the university system’s budgets managed to reduce the governor’s cuts to 14 percent. System officials, however, say the most they can take is a 10 percent cut without causing serious damage to programs.
Horsford said he agreed to split the difference at 12 percent but that, when he did, others argued they should split the difference again and land at 13 percent.
“We started at 10,” he said. “The system has said that a 10 percent cut while harmful is reasonable enough they can live with it but beyond that, it’s going to have an impact on students.”
Each percent amounts to about $14 million over the biennium, and Horsford said 12 percent is as far as he will go. Any more, he said, and schools like the College of Southern Nevada have to close classes, denying people access to education that can improve their earning power and quality of life.
He said the added cost has to be covered by raising more revenue and that, particularly in the education budgets, Nevada businesses need to step up.
“Business needs to share the responsibility to fund education,” he said. “It’s time for them to come to the table.”
He added that he still favors a net profits tax.
“The reason I like net profits is because it’s on the businesses that can afford to pay because they have a profit,” Horsford said.
He said the problem with raising the Modified Business Tax is that it is based on payroll.
“It’s based on their cost, not on their profit,” he said. “We need to come up with a solution that taxes profits of a business, not the costs to that business.”
Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.
Leadership has been stalled since Friday over how much they can afford to restore to the system’s budget, which was chopped by 35.9 percent in the governor’s proposed funding plan.
The core group of legislative leaders negotiating the university system’s budgets managed to reduce the governor’s cuts to 14 percent. System officials, however, say the most they can take is a 10 percent cut without causing serious damage to programs.
Horsford said he agreed to split the difference at 12 percent but that, when he did, others argued they should split the difference again and land at 13 percent.
“We started at 10,” he said. “The system has said that a 10 percent cut while harmful is reasonable enough they can live with it but beyond that, it’s going to have an impact on students.”
Each percent amounts to about $14 million over the biennium, and Horsford said 12 percent is as far as he will go. Any more, he said, and schools like the College of Southern Nevada have to close classes, denying people access to education that can improve their earning power and quality of life.
He said the added cost has to be covered by raising more revenue and that, particularly in the education budgets, Nevada businesses need to step up.
“Business needs to share the responsibility to fund education,” he said. “It’s time for them to come to the table.”
He added that he still favors a net profits tax.
“The reason I like net profits is because it’s on the businesses that can afford to pay because they have a profit,” Horsford said.
He said the problem with raising the Modified Business Tax is that it is based on payroll.
“It’s based on their cost, not on their profit,” he said. “We need to come up with a solution that taxes profits of a business, not the costs to that business.”
Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.
