STATE: Democrats to review budget thoroughly

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, Thursday promised a thorough review of the real impacts of budget cuts proposed by Gov. Jim Gibbons.

She said that review and analysis would "examine our spending priorities and decide what we cannot cut without devastating impacts on the lives of Nevadans."

She said lawmakers will "adjust revenue to fund essential services," including by re-evaluating tax incentives that have been given to certain businesses for years "and end those that do not make sense."

Buckley promised an overhaul of the state's financial structure "so that we are not considering draconian cuts to education and public safety every time the economy tanks."

She said lawmakers "will commit ourselves to finding meaningful solutions that, at the very least, do not send our state careening backwards and, at best, create a road map for future stability and progress."

She was joined by Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, who said the state must balance its budget, but in a way that protects critical services.

"This budget is not the answer," he said. "We need solutions that will work for the state of Nevada."

He said he was disappointed at the lack of detail in the speech.

Buckley charged that the hidden parts of the budget include a 7 percent cut in public school funding, serious cuts in payments to doctors and hospitals, cuts to mental health clinics and cutting off retired teachers and state employees from health insurance subsidies. The cuts to hospital reimbursement rates, she said, could force two rural hospitals to close.

She protested the reduction of staff in the Nuclear Projects office from eight to two and the elimination of legal defense funding just as the federal government begins the licensing process for Yucca Mountain.

But Gibbons said after his speech that there is $6.9 million in legal defense funding in each year of his budget.

"We are not giving up the fight against Yucca Mountain," he said.

Democrats agreed with Chancellor Jim Rogers that the proposed 36 percent cuts to higher education would destroy the system. Buckley said those cuts aren't across the board, that community college campuses are protected.

She said that means the cut at UNLV would be 52 percent of the campus general fund budget and the cut at UNR 47 percent.

Both said at that point the state might just as well shut the schools.

The Republican Caucus, on the other hand, issued a statement supporting the governor's tough stance on raising taxes while saying they were pleased Health and Human Services cuts were avoided and that K-12 education funding was reduced only a bit.

Buckley charged that while per-pupil funding was reduced only slightly, other cuts to public school budgets result in more than $300 million in overall reductions, which she said is unacceptable.