State of the budget easy to describe: painful

CARSON CITY -- Gov. Kenny Guinn's $3.2 billion state budget is one that shares the pain.

Hundreds of state workers will be laid off; enrollments will be limited in the University and Community College System of Nevada; and some social programs will be scaled back.

"I'm not proud of what we had to do," Guinn said of the proposed budget he unveiled Monday night.

Guinn kept his campaign pledge to protect the public schools. Their share of the budget rose from 33.7 percent to 35.5 percent. Most of the extra money covers expected growth in student numbers, not program enhancements. And he announced a new scholarship program for high school students to attend state universities or community colleges.

But there won't be any money for pay raises for state workers, who now trail their counterparts in Clark and Washoe counties by 17 percent. School teachers and university faculty also will not get raises in the governor's plan.

Guinn backed off his campaign pledge to put an extra $3 million in rebates to senior citizen homeowners and renters. The budget also does not fulfill his promise for an education boot camp for juvenile offenders.

The $3.2 billion unveiled Monday was the General Fund spending plan for the next two years, representing money from state taxes. It is 7 percent more than the present biennial budget. The overall state budget, including federal funds and other fees, is $10.8 billion, compared with $9.7 billion in 1995-97.

Guinn stressed he had to make more than $140.7 million in cuts just to keep the budget balanced without imposing new taxes. But he promised changes will be made to prevent the state from falling into the same dilemma in the future.

There are some additions, but they are few and far between.

Foster parents who receive a monthly grant of $288 to care for a child would receive $474 a month. Some foster parents received the raise in the last biennium.

Parole and probation officers would see their average caseload reduced to 70 convicts, down from 75. More social workers would be hired in the state Division of Children and Family Services, reducing the average case load in that department to 34 from 38.

Guinn is pumping $1.4 million a year in state and highway funds into Nevada's Office of Nuclear Projects, which oversees studies at the proposed nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain. The office lost its federal funds, and the state has had to step up to the plate to keep it going.

The financially troubled state employees health plan will get an extra $32 million to keep it out of the red. And an estimated $15 million more will be pumped into the system to keep it on an even keel over the next two years. Guinn is proposing the system be overhauled to prevent the problems it experienced in the last two years.

Guinn's budget keeps intact the state aid to public schools and the class- size reduction program. And there is money for such things as increased costs of books and utilities. Guinn said aid to the public schools will take the highest percentage of the state's budget than at any time in the past ten years.

He is putting aside $12 million to help at-risk schools where students don't measure up to national average test scores.

Guinn's budget calls for part of the $48 million-a-year tobacco settlement to begin the "Millennium Scholarships" program, which would provide money to attend a state university or community college for every Nevada student who graduates with at least a B average.

The scholarships, which Guinn described as "bold," would provide up to $2,500 annually for four years for a university student and $1,250 for a community college student beginning in 2000.

Budget reductions proposed by Guinn include:

The reductions, Guinn said, were "painful and difficult," and the governor pledged to conduct the most thorough review ever of state government in the coming two years to make sure money is being spent wisely.

There won't be any reductions in mental health services, he said. No cutbacks are planned on grants to welfare families, which have not been raised in more than six years.

Despite the elimination of some 500 state jobs, the state employee work force will grow from the present 15,800 to 16,404 at the end of the biennium on June 30, 2001.

Some other changes in the budget include consolidating the Department of Prisons with the Public Safety Division for a Department of Corrections and combining the seven state payroll systems.

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