Nevada Legislature winds down budget process

The Nevada Senate on Thursday gave final legislative approval to the first of the major bills which will create the budget and pay for it.

AB563 appropriates a total of $2.79 billion to the budgets which fund K-12 public schools during the next biennium. It goes to the governor for his signature.

The only no vote was cast by Carson City Republican Mark Amodei who told the body "different parts of the budget are not treated equally."

He said K-12 education was taking a smaller budget reduction than other state agencies and would vote against the bill because of the fairness issue.

Final passage of the education bill clears lawmakers of the hurdle imposed by the "Education First" amendment to the Nevada Constitution which mandates that an education funding plan be approved before other parts of the state budget.

Other parts of the budget package also are moving through the Legislature but some observers were concerned they aren't moving fast enough to meet the 5 p.m. today deadline for shipping those measures to the governor.

That deadline was set so that lawmakers will still be in session to override the governor's promised veto.

The biggest portion of General Fund spending, the Appropriations Act, has been approved by the Assembly and is now in the Senate. In addition, the bill setting state worker salaries for the next two years was approved by the Senate and ordered to the Assembly.

The fourth of the five measures which make up the budget, the Authorizations Act, has been introduced in the Senate as SB431.

The remaining piece of the puzzle, the Capital Improvement Projects bill, has not yet been introduced but officials say that legislation isn't among those Gibbons is likely to veto, which means it can be processed after today's deadline.

The final issues in the mix are changes to the Public Employees Retirement System.

None of the proposed changes would impact current workers. The changes would be applied only to workers hired after January 1, 2010.

Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, said the rate at which public workers accrue retirement has been 2.67 percent for each year of service since 2001. The compromise plan dropped that back to 2.5 percent " the historic rate. But he said Republicans want the rate cut to 2.35 percent.

The second issue, Townsend said, is his caucus's desire to eliminate the rule allowing people to retire at any age once they have 30 years service. They have argued workers should have to reach a specific age before being able to retire and collect their pension.

He said the compromise proposal would trade the 30-and-out rule for a cost of living adjustment to benefits after retirement.

"If we resolve the last two issues to the satisfaction of Republican Senators, we can move to a tax vote," Townsend said.

The tax package is awaiting agreement on the benefits changes. If enacted, it would generate $781 million during the biennium to balance the $6.745 billion General Fund budget contained in those budget bills.

The legislation implementing the 4.6 percent pay cut for state workers was also approved and sent to the Assembly.

The cut would come in the form of 12 furlough days without pay each year for both classified and unclassified state workers. It would impose the cuts on K-12 education simply by reducing the total funding to public schools and leaving it to the districts to decide how to implement it.

SB431, however, does contain provisions to restore part of that salary cut if the economy recovers and excess funds begin to flow into the state treasury. Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, told fellow senators workers would get back 1 percent if the state's Ending Fund Balance rises to $390 million above the statutory minimum and 2 percent if the EFB is $425 million or more above that mark.

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