Legislators hope to avert conflict over university spending

CARSON CITY -- Clark County legislators, hoping to avoid a major north-south fight, will meet Thursday with Regent Steve Sisolak, who has complained that schools in Clark County are getting shortchanged by the University and Community College System of Nevada.

Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said there is "room for negotiation so everybody gets a little something ... a compromise so it doesn't blow up."

Titus and Assembly Majority Leader Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, have scheduled the session with Sisolak and other southern lawmakers and regents.

Meanwhile, Gov. Kenny Guinn favors an independent study to see if there are inequities. The governor also has expressed interest in having any shifting of monies wait until the 2001 Legislature.

"The governor would appreciate a unified front from the university system," Peter Ernaut, Guinn's chief of staff, said.

The data, Ernaut said, is incomplete on whether there's an unequal distribution of money between north and south. And there isn't the money available now to correct this, he said.

"The governor wants an independent study and Sen. (Bill) Raggio agrees with that," Ernaut said. Raggio is Senate majority leader and chairman of the Finance Committee.

The Board of Regents set and then canceled a special meeting Feb. 17 in Reno to talk about support formulas for UNLV and the Community College of Southern Nevada compared to the University of Nevada, Reno and the Northern Nevada community colleges. Sisolak wants the disparities straightened out during the 1999 Legislature.

Titus said, "Steve is telling me he's got the votes to open up the regents' budgets and to consider the priorities" of taking the money from development of the new Redfield campus south of Reno.

"But regardless of what he does, the Legislature is still in charge," Titus said. "If he (Sisolak) takes it off, Raggio can put it back on," she said.

The University of Nevada, Reno and the community colleges in Reno and Carson City are in a joint effort for the Redfield campus, whose land was donated to the system.

Sisolak says UNR receives $10,373 per student compared to $7,310 at UNLV.

In a joint statement, Perkins and Titus said, "As Southern Nevadans, we are extremely concerned about these disparities and believe we must begin now to more closely examine the problem. We do believe, however, that if we get both southern and northern legislators, as well as the governor, to come to the table, we can work things out amicably."

They said they need to bring "everyone together so that this does not become a divisive regional fight where no one wins."

Titus said there must be a plan to address the unequal treatment with a definite timetable. "We can't take $40 million away from the north in one fell swoop ... maybe over five years. There's room for negotiations," she said.

The university system initially proposed a two-year study to examine the problem.

Titus said there are a "lot of things in play." She said Sen. Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, wants a dental school at UNLV, that Perkins and Sen. Jon Porter, R-Boulder City, want a university campus in their hometown, and that Assembly Speaker Joe Dini, D-Yerington, favors the development of the Redfield campus. Titus said she wants to see expansion of the Desert Research Institute in Las Vegas.

Clark County has held the majority on the Board of Regents and in the Legislature for more than 20 years. Guinn is from Las Vegas, as were the previous two governors.

Asked why Clark County hasn't moved before this, Titus, a professor at UNLV, said that southern Republicans "have been reluctant to buck Bill Raggio," considered one of the most powerful politicians in the state. She said Sisolak deserves credit for raising the issue. "This has been going on a long time."

Titus and Perkins said: "There is no doubt we need to take a close look at new figures that indicate the Community College of Southern Nevada and UNLV are not receiving the funding that institutions in Northern Nevada are getting."

President Joe Crowley of UNR listed these reasons for the discrepancies:

* The Reno campus has $3.8 million in its budget for operation and maintenance costs of such areas as the school of medicine, the Cooperative Extension service and the agriculture experiment station. UNLV has no such charge.

* There are 650,000 more square feet to maintain in Reno than at UNLV, which translates into higher costs.

* Utility costs are higher in Reno than in Las Vegas.

* Reno has high-cost programs of engineering and nursing. And these require more extensive lab experience and closer faculty supervision than other typical courses at UNLV. Reno enrolls 22 percent of its student body in high-cost programs compared to 18 percent for UNLV.

* There are more associate and full professor ranks than at UNLV. That raises the salary costs.

* There's a greater percentage of enrollment at Reno in the upper division and graduate levels, which are more costly, than at UNLV.

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