Submitted by Jim Richardson, NFA Lobbyist
Very busy day yesterday, with lots happening. The stories here highlight some of the action, but pay no attention whatsoever to one major event for NSHE. Dan Klaich made a strong presentation to the Senate committee of the whole that lasted nearly two hours. He answered numerous questions, assisted at times by Marc Johnson, UNR’s provost, who had been asked to come down specifically to respond to questions about the role Cooperative Extension, which is a state-wide UNR program deriving from its Land Grant status. Johnson also spoke on some other questions, including especially the criteria being applied when considering what programs to cut.
Many questions were asked about the implementation of the furlough program, about tenure and its protections, about faculty workload, about criteria being used to decide which programs to cut in the face of budget cuts, level of tuition and plans to possibly increase tuition, student involvement in planning, plans to deal with possible redundancies and reorganization within the System. Klaich and Johnson did a solid job of dealing with those questions, and some strong support was received on behalf of the work of professors from some Senators, especially Bob Coffin, Steven Horsford, and Randolph Townsend. I was prepared to testify if needed, but felt that these two did a good job of handling all the questions.
Both houses of the Legislature started taking straw votes on items on the governor’s list of proposed cuts, as the stories below indicate. An important straw vote is anticipated this morning in the Assembly on possibly lowering the proposed cut to NSHE institutions. Very important vote!
One major serious [sic] of events that occurred yesterday is worth a comment. The governor has issued a proclamation attempting to force a shut-down of the special session by midnight Sunday night, and he has also attacked legislators including especially Senator Raggio. This has, in my estimation, solidified the Legislature somewhat, and may make it easier for both parties and both houses to reach agreement on what must be done. It is getting more clear that the package they approve will be vetoed by the governor, and then need to be over-ridden by the Legislature. So, this could get even more interesting!
A much larger than usual meeting of the Benefits Coalition took place at noon yesterday. Over 30 representatives showed up for the meeting, with much discussion about the efforts to cut PEBP reserves, to find ways to get money from PERS to help with the budget crisis, attempts to change the collective bargaining law for local governments, implementation of the furlough program, and various initiative petitions that are being promoted. Efforts to cut PEBP reserves are being challenged by some key legislators, so there is some hope that this will not happen, and many are working on that issue. It was generally agreed that getting money from PERS was a non-starter given the constitutional protections that PERS funds have. The governor issued a new proclamation yesterday that was seen as a broad attack on collective bargaining, especially for K-12 teachers, but legislative leaders do not seem interested in taking up that complicated issue. There was much complaining about how the furlough plan has worked (or not) so far in various agencies, and many questions about how it would work in the future under the proposed “four-tens” plan that would have most state offices operating only four days a week. There was general agreement that this plan would make it very difficult for many state agencies, including NSHE, to operate effectively. Several new initiative petitions that have been introduced to limit labor’s political activities were discussed, as was the PLAN initiative concerning mining taxes.
That is a brief report. Must get to Carson City. More later.
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