Protected Industries Play Let’s Make a Deal and Kids Lose
Legislative process broken, voters’ task evident
The 26th Special Session of the Nevada Legislature wrapped up early in the morning Monday, Mar. 1, as lawmakers dealt with the $887 million shortfall. The NSEA Lobby Team was in Carson City working with legislators to ensure the proposed cuts were reduced to as little as possible while making mega corporations and the mining industry pay their fair share.
“NSEA was successful in shifting the conversation from finding more areas to cut, to finding monies to prevent cuts,” said NSEA President Lynn Warne. “Through the television commercials which aired statewide, rallies, the State of the State watch party, testimonies before legislative committees, member e-mails and phone calls to the legislators, NSEA and its local affiliates applied enough pressure to make them find funds to reduce the cuts.”
In the end there will be a 6.9% cut to the education budget down from the proposed 11.75% going into the special session. This translates into a reduction of $117 million in funding for Nevada’s schools.
“The quality of life in Nevada is shortchanged because the process allows mining and other big corporations and large industries off the hook from paying their fair share,” said Warne. “The reality is that the process is broken. Too many games were played. Mega corporations and the mining industry played Let’s Make a Deal… and our kids lost!”
NSEA was there every step of the way having tough discussions with legislators. Many of those discussions involved protecting the collective bargaining law--NRS 288.
“As we did during the special session, we will continue to work feverishly in the interim to ensure NRS 288 remains untouched,” added Warne. “This law provides public employees in Nevada with rights and job protection and we will not let anti-public education groups weaken those rights while they further protect mega corporations and the mining industry and all of their exemptions. It’s time for the voters to change the current process and make it work so all Nevadans, students in particular, get a fair shot at a quality education.”
Fortunately, members will have direct input into resolving their respective district’s shortfall through the negotiations process. And while there will be less funding available, the outcome of negotiations will dictate the true effect in the schools and on the members.
NSEA fought to preserve as much funding as possible including money for added flexibility to the class size reduction program. It was amended to add two students to each class in grades K-3. According to the lobby team, this was passed to give school districts flexibility to prevent the massive layoffs. The teacher incentive program for the 1/5 service credit was also saved with a reduction of $8.5 million leaving more than $16 million to sustain the program.
Additionally, the Legislature released textbook monies freeing up millions of dollars. The legislature also agreed to allow for $25 million to be removed from the Clark County School District’s fund for capital projects to be used for other purposes not associated with capital projects.
Unlike the 2009 Legislative Session, the only revenue enhancements the legislature could agree to were fee increases. These included but are not limited to an increase in the fees on banks from $50 to $200 as a payment of fee for deposit in the Account for Foreclosure Mediation, as well as an increase in the mining claim fee if a company owns more than 11 mining claims in the state. Additionally, there will be an increase in the hourly rate charged by the Nevada Gaming Control Board for investigations of applications for a license.
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