Legislative committee restores $330 million to university budget

A joint subcommittee of the Nevada Legislature voted Tuesday to pump more than $330 million back into the university system's budget.

Universities will still see a 12.5 percent cut from the $1.35 billion it received this biennium " about $175 million less "  but that is just one-third of the 35.9 percent, $500 million reduction contained in Gov. Jim Gibbons' proposed budget.

For the coming biennium, the system will receive just under $1.2 billion from the state.

"I think we have achieved a very good result from what was proposed by the governor," said Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas.

He said in an interview afterward the increases to the university system, K-12 education and other additions to the budget leave lawmakers looking at total General Fund spending "just south of $7 billion. The governor's proposed budget totals $6.2 billion."

But Horsford refused to say how much of that would come from tax increases, saying "other sources" of revenue will cover some of the gap.

He said that is the remaining challenge for lawmakers to handle in remaining days of the session.

"I'm pleased we were able to cut the governor's proposal by almost two-thirds," said Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas.

Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, described the plan as "a good solution."

The plan also includes a change to allow the university campuses to keep all tuition increases they make this biennium. Under existing rules, lawmakers require that two-thirds of any money gained by tuition increases come back to the state to offset General Fund spending.

But lawmakers made clear they don't intend to allow the system to go wild raising class fees and tuition. Horsford said they want to make sure "the burden does not fall disproportionately on students."

Raggio agreed, saying the Board of Regents has already ordered a 5 percent tuition increase for each of the next two years.

"I think we can send a strong statement as to what we think a reasonable cap should be," he said.

"I think we've gotten the message from you that you're not looking for us to sock it to the students," said System Executive Vice Chancellor Dan Klaich.

He said the board has already discussed that and does not intend to raise per-credit fees any more than another 10 percent.

Raggio said the anything in excess of that would be inappropriate.

The plan also includes adjustments outside the per-student funding formula to help UNLV and College of Southern Nevada and a change in how the formula is applied to fix what Klaich described as unintended impacts to those campuses. CSN would get an additional $4 million over the biennium, UNLV $13.3 million and, because of the changes, UNR would also benefit by $3.45 million.

"Under the circumstances, we fared about as well as we could reasonably expect," said Klaich. He said setting the General Fund cut at 12.5 percent and giving the system the flexibility to raise fees gets the overall reduction down to about 10 percent, which is what he said earlier would be a reasonable cut.

Klaich said students will probably see an additional 5 percent per credit increase this year and, after all the numbers are worked out, regents will look at whether they need an additional increase.

He said settling the budget "gives us a number to plan on." He said it also sends a message to faculty that they won't face draconian cuts and that their rights will be protected.

But he said the cuts will be painful.

"I think we're going to have de facto if not explicit caps on enrollment," he said.

There are going to be some students who aren't going to get classes, fewer classes offered and other changes.

Klaich said it's a challenge to the system.

"The message has to go back to the system to look inward at how we offer our services," he said.

Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.