Tuesday, May 27, 2003 | 11:08 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Two weeks ago, fiscal analysts warned lawmakers that they had to resolve budget differences by May 24 or risk running out of time to print the massive appropriation bills.
And despite entering a Monday evening negotiating session swearing they had to emerge with a deal on the massive education spending plan, 10 lawmakers left trying to set aside sometime today to finish the job.
The Senate finished its budget at $230 million less than the Assembly, but the hang-up on funding K-12 education isn't just the amount of money.
The sticking points, according to those in the session, are more about policy than simple Republican vs. Democrat politics.
"We've been in there 90 minutes and haven't gotten to agreement on the first item," Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, said when he stepped outside the Senate leadership office conference room for a soft drink about 9:15 p.m.
The Assembly wants to grant teachers 4 percent raises in each of the next two years. The Senate is backing Gov. Kenny Guinn's call for a 2 percent raise in the first year -- a raise promised in 2001, but never delivered because a trigger to create the revenues wasn't met.
"Are you saying that's it, a one-shot raise and nothing," one negotiating lawmaker's rising voice was easily overheard at one point through the conference room door in Sen. Majority Leader Bill Raggio's office.
Raggio, R-Reno, and Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Las Vegas, headed up talks with each house's fiscal analyst.
Before the lawmakers came together, Assembly Ways and Means fiscal analyst Mark Stevens had some sympathy for his Senate counterpart, Gary Ghiggeri: "At least they have to have a budget by July 1."
After the talks ended Monday night, Ghiggeri slammed his empty soda can into the garbage.
Legislative Counsel Bureau's chief lawyer, Brenda Erdoes, attended the late session, hoping lawmakers could reach a deal so the printing press could crank out the legislation.
"Brenda said we have to do it tonight," Sen. Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, said as he awaited the start of the session in the conference room.
Other lawmakers in the talks were: Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas; Sen. Mike McGinness, R-Fallon and chairman of the Taxation Committee; Sen. Bernice Mathews, D-Sparks; Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas; Assembly Ways and Means Chairman Morse Arberry Jr., D-Las Vegas; and Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas.
Several of those who attended the session said the final budget number wasn't even discussed amid policy driven differences regarding teacher salaries and class size reduction.
The Senate closed its budget with Guinn's recommended program granting class size flexibility to school districts. The Assembly added money to reduce kindergarten class size to 16 to 1, and to fund continuation of class size reduction in other primary elementary school grades.
Giunchigliani, the vice chairwoman of Ways and Means, said her committee supported adding money to the governor's education budget both to address some of what the state's school superintendents sought in the "iNVest" plan.
"And, if we're going to raise taxes, we shouldn't just do it to fill the hole, we should be able to show people that the tax increase actually went to fund something that constituents say they want," Giunchigliani said.
One of the sticking points is funding the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which requires achievement testing for students and gives parents a chance to choose where they send their children to school if schools don't improve. That's a philosophic difference between the parties.
Giunchigliani refers to the federal mandate as "No Child Left Untested." During a hearing this morning on SB191, Giunchigliani, a former special education teacher, expressed disgust with the amount of testing and reporting of test results contained in the bill.
"When are people going to, like, teach?" Giunchigliani asked. "We're arguing (in the budget talks) over no extra instructional day. This is insane."
The Assembly has proposed, although not included in its budget, adding five instructional days to the school year.
Under SB191, a school can be designated as needing improvement if a certain percentage of students do meet the testing bar. If a school is still listed a needing improvement after three years, parents will have the choice to remove their students from the school. In the fourth year, the school would be required to provide remedial services, possibly from private vendors.
"When you said there's a philosophical disconnect, there is," Assemblywoman Vonne Chowning, D-North Las Vegas, and a member of the Ways and Means Committee told staff this morning. "It's a huge gap."
The state is facing a $704 million deficit over the next two fiscal years. The Senate closed its budget with the inclusion of an additional $830 million in increased funding while the Assembly's budget went a higher, to $1.06 billion.
Both houses included a $50 million transfer to the depleted "rainy day fund" as part of the total budget number.
Republicans have consistently argued against new programs or increased spending in new areas during the largest tax increase in Nevada history.
Raggio stressed Monday that his Finance Committee's budget focused only on increased funding in areas for which the state has caseload or population growth -- areas like child and family welfare, mental health services and per- pupil spending.
"There really isn't a lot of extra in the budget and we really are trying to reduce the impact on the average taxpayer to pay for the increases we are supporting," Raggio said.
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