Jim Richardson, NFA lobbyist and UNR professor, educates CSN faculty on impending state budget cuts.

Contributed by Adrian Havas, NFA-CSN secretary.

UNR professor and NFA lobbyist James Richardson met on 5 Feb 2010 with the chapter at West Charleston campus of CSN to discuss pending budget cuts and their effects on faculty and programs.

He began on a positive note. “We have good relationships with people in the governor’s office and the budget office of the state,” he said. “We defeated a $100 million cut in our budget during the last Legislative session.”

It is at the upcoming Special Session called for Feb. 23 by Gov. Gibbons that Richardson said that NFA members could “do some good.” He noted a meeting held just days earlier in which the Interim Finance Committee of the Legislature “was educated” about what effect cuts of the magnitude being discussed will have on the NSHE system.

“Our Health Care plan is, regrettably, on the table,” Richardson said. “Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford said it’s on the list.”

Richardson urged NFA members to send emails to Senate Finance Committee members to urge them not to reduce this.

Asked about what tone to take in these email communications, Richardson said that should try “not to sound arrogant, or uncivil, or self-serving.” He added that anecdotes of how our classroom experience, and the students’ educational needs, would be helpful.

He said the NSHE system is lucky to have Dan Klaich as its current chancellor. “He’s articulate, intelligent, and people believe him,” Richardson said.

“Klaich is emphasizing that we need to get the autonomy to determine the cut,” he added. “And we will be cut. Anyone who doubts that is not facing facts.”

Richardson then went forward with an outline of where the cuts would likely happen. He later noted that this was not the complete list, but only the most likely targets.

First, he said that student fees for tuition, etc., are likely to rise. “That’s very regrettable, since over the past three years they have gone up 28 percent.”

Second, academic program reorganization is likely, Richardson said. There are basically two ways that the Regents can fire professors: declare “Financial Exigency” which is akin to bankruptcy (the state of Hawaii has recently done this.) The next way is “program reorganization.”

“There is some bumping (seniority) rights, but they aren’t written down,” Richardson said. “This is a more subtle way of making staff reductions, and it offers fewer protections, frankly.”

Richardson said that 40 faculty members have been terminated at UNR under this strategy over the past year, “and then the economy collapsed.”

The third and last major way the budget cuts will be enacted is through pay cuts, he said. “This will happen,” Richardson said. “We will fight to make them temporary.

“You can help by lobbying the Regents. Any code changes should be temporary.”

Senate Chair N. Mark Rauls said that the faculty need to debate any changes to the Regents Code, as well as Financial Exigency. It was pointed out that Regent Chair James Dean Leavitt has reportedly already directed his staff to begin filing papers for Exigency.

The talk turned to the subject of the state’s boom-and-bust cycles, and how the state needs a more stable tax base to support its existing infrastructure, including the colleges and universities.

We have the most screwed up tax structure in the United States, no doubt about it,” Richardson said. “No sales tax on services, no extraction taxes on mining. The governor vetoed Sen. Horsford’s proposal for a broad-based business tax and 40 other ones.”

Other possible taxes Nevada could adopt: a tax on Internet sales generated here, and a tax on services.

Executive Board member Steve Konowalow said that the gaming industry does not pay enough tax, compared with other states with legal gaming. One of the CSN staff present, who said she had moved in the last several years to Nevada from Kentucky, suggested a state lottery, but it was pointed out that the gaming industry has jealously protected its turf in this regard and has rebuffed any legislative proposals to enact a lottery.

Richardson brought the discussion back to the topic of budget cuts.

“The coming Legislative session will be horrendous in terms of revenue coming in,” Richardson said. “We need to do something in this state to improve this.”

One faculty member who identified herself as being in International Languages also a recent transplant to Nevada said that we should “look beyond taxes” for the solution to NSHE’s financial problems.

Richardson replied, “We need to look everywhere.”

College of Southern Nevada economics professor and NFA-CSN chapter president Dr. Shari Lyman explains in a panel discussion aired on KNPR’s “State of Nevada” radio show.  If you missed this Monday broadcast (8 Feb. 2010), hear it here (the first half-hour of a two-segment program).

For example: Our beloved gaming corporations pay far higher tax rates in other states, and they happily compete for gaming market share in states with gaming tax assessments as high as 20% (Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri), 35% (Indiana), and 50% (Indiana and Pennsylvania).  Nevada asks for a measly 6.75. By not increasing our gaming tax rate and collecting more revenue from these corporations to support our public schools, colleges, and universities, we are helping to fund these other states’ public schools, colleges, and universities.

Let’s put Nevada public education first!  Please, Mr. Wynn, may we have the 8% you pay in New Jersey and Mississippi?

If you missed Governor Gibbons’ broadcast last night, you can read the text of the 2010 “State of the State” message here (.pdf) or here (website).

NFA Advisor draws your attention to the Gibbons plan for protecting teachers’ salaries: the Education Gift certificate.

“You can use the gift certificate to donate money to a non-profit organization that will make sure your money is spent ONLY on teachers’ salaries. For those of you who can afford to help our teachers, I encourage you do it.”

Dear Governor, with 140,000 Nevadans already out of work and 90,000 more (including teachers and other public servants) projected to join them over the next 18 months, with a 4.6 percent decline in personal income and a massive decrease in home values, just whom do you suppose can still afford to give charity to teachers?

Well, the Nevada mining industry continues to earn record-breaking high profits. Maybe these multi-national companies will donate money to keep our public education afloat.

The bigger issue here is ideology. Do we believe that funding public education is the privilege of the wealthy who can afford to make charitable donations (and receive federal income tax credits/subsidies) for doing so? Or do we accept that, because we give every citizen the right to vote, funding public education is the obligation of every citizen and that fair taxation, including taxation of multi-state corporations who bring business here with the expectation that we will provide them an educated workforce, represents the cost of providing this public service to ourselves and our posterity?

Clearly, our governor believes that Nevada public education, like playwright Tennessee Williams’ Blanche DuBois, should depend on the kindness of strangers. What a helluva way to raise our children and to make our state more attractive to new businesses.