Monday, May 12, 2003 | 11:13 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- The Senate Finance Committee voted 5-2 today to continue funding Nevada State College at Henderson after a debate over whether it is worth the money.
The college, started two years ago, has an enrollment of 146 students, with officials estimating it will grow to 500 full-time students by 2005.
Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, who led the questioning about keeping Henderson but then voted to retain the school, said he was "never quite convinced we needed it."
Coffin asked if spending $6.7 million in state general funds during the next two years might be "shorting the rest of the system," referring to the University and Community College System of Nevada.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, and Sen. Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, defended the college, with Raggio citing contracts for faculty already signed.
"It would be impractical and inappropriate to do away with it," Raggio said.
Rawson said the state college charges less than the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and "is a less expensive way of growing these students."
"Every time we have this discussion, it is disruptive to the students who don't know if they will have a home," Rawson said. "We made a commitment. The hard part is over."
The school was created with the goal of turning out more schoolteachers and nurses that are in short supply in Nevada.
Sen. Bernice Mathews, D-Reno, said the Community College of Southern Nevada campus in Henderson could have been turned into a four-year program for nurses and teachers with less expense.
"We're not getting our bang for our buck,"she said.
Joining Mathews in voting against Henderson was Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas.
The committee approved the overall budget of the university system for the next two years of $1.03 billion, a 23.2 percent increase over the amount approved in 2001.
Of the total, $890.7 million will come from the state treasury, an increase of 24.2 percent over the last biennium. The balance comes from student fees, estate taxes and other revenues of the system. The system will receive 18.5 percent of the state's general fund.
The budget, as approved, will increase the funding formula from 80.09 percent to 84.45 percent. Gov. Kenny Guinn had recommended the system be funded at the 86 percent level.
The budget, as adjusted by legislative subcommittees, calls for doubling the nursing enrollment from 686 students this year to 1,326 in the 2005 fiscal year. The university system sought $12.1 million initially, but the Assembly leadership devised a new plan so that large campuses would absorb the higher nursing enrollments.
The Nevada Hospital Association agreed to finance $559,473 in equipment costs, and the state added $454,612. The nursing program expects $300,000 in a trust fund for public health.
The Senate committee agreed with Guinn's recommendation to provide more money for growth of the dental school at UNLV. The enrollment will increase from 75 students to 225 students by fiscal 2005, with 54 new positions added.
The committee also agreed to provide $3.23 million for equipment at the dental school, which was outside the governor's budget.
The budget also calls for deferring budgeted merit pay for university faculty for six months of the next fiscal year for a savings of $3.2 million.
The committee said it agreed with the tuition and fee increases approved by the Board of Regents, ranging from 1.7 percent to 9.4 percent, and it endorsed the regents' plan that directs major portions of the annual increases to building projects and student access funds.
Voting no on the budget was Sen. Sandra Tiffany, R-Henderson, who objected to a 24 percent increase in funding and also to a variety of projects that will be financed.
The Assembly Ways and Means Committee is expected to adopt a budget similar to the one approved by the Senate.
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