Nevada Education Under Fire
This is just about where state lawmakers left off nearly two years ago: facing a shortage of billions of dollars and battling over the possibility of new taxes.
As the 2011 Nevada Legislature prepared to convene Feb. 7, members of the state Assembly and Senate scrambled to find common ground with businesspeople, special interest groups, Gov. Brian Sandoval and one another.
Nevada is facing a budget shortfall of as much as $2.5 billion over the next biennium. Under the governor’s two-year, $5.8 billion budget plan, the state would return to 2007 spending levels. That would chop about $402 million from current spending. That’s a 6.4 percent reduction, but Democrats say the true overall cut is closer to 30 percent.
Leading up the session, there was a battle of wills between the new Republican governor — who has pledged to not raise taxes — and State Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, who has vowed to not let Sandoval’s budget stand as is and “gut education.”
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