Regents see estate tax as quick fix

The regents, at the end of a six-hour meeting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on Wednesday, agreed unanimously to ask the 1999 Legislature to spend $22.2 million in estate tax collections over the next two years to narrow the disparities by one-third.

They also agreed to ask that nearly $1 million in their budget, which is already in the hands of state lawmakers, be moved from the University of Nevada, Reno to help fix the $17 million shortfall for teaching extra students in the south.

The estate tax revenues already are earmarked for higher education, but regents shifted spending priorities Wednesday and asked lawmakers to bolster spending from an interest-bearing fund fed by estate tax dollars.

Estate tax spending in the current biennium totals $37 million. Under the proposal, that would climb to $60 million for 2000 and 2001.

"We tried to push the estate tax as high as we could," Chancellor Richard Jarvis said. "That is high, and we are all very uncomfortable with it."

But Jarvis argued it was better to carry a specific plan to the Legislature rather than simply ask lawmakers for an increase in state general fund spending on higher education.

He added the fix would be short-term and the university system would push during the 2001 Legislature to have the state pick up the $22.2 million in each two-year budget in future years.

"If we get to the next biennium and they won't, then we have a problem," said Regent Dorothy Gallagher of Elko.

"Let's get in and get out quickly because this is not the right use for the estate tax," Jarvis said.

UNR President Joe Crowley agreed the collections were never meant to pay for general, ongoing higher-education costs. The funds are meant to enhance operating budgets, he said.

If lawmakers back the plan, several systemwide technology projects would be cut from the university system's previous estate tax list.

An additional $2 million in savings would come from reductions in research funding, some of which would come from UNLV, but a statewide dental residency program and new four-year degree offerings at Elko's Great Basin College would be spared.

About $350,000 would be cut from the chancellor's administrative office budget.

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