More Education Cuts: Nevada Special Session

Governor Jim Gibbons has released the details of his budget plan for the special session of the Nevada Legislature coming up. To the surprise and chagrin of law makers, and members of the community, the plan calls for even greater cuts to education than anticipated.

Education vs. Taxes

“If anyone else has any ideas on how to fix it, I am listening,” Gibbons said. “This criticism does not recognize that this problem is fixable, and I have presented a plan to fix it.”

One twist to this story is that Governor Gibbons’ plan also includes broad tax increases. He insists that these changes are not tax increases, however, claiming he is simply clarifying tax codes and closing loopholes. This will be more interesting “NVTV” as we wait and see if a 2/3 majority will be needed to increase state revenue, as required by the state constitution.

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said Wednesday the additional 1.75 percent salary cut on top of 10 percent across the board already proposed by the Republican governor would mean thousands of teacher layoffs and 50-student class sizes in high schools.

Yet another bizarre aspect in Nevada politics is the constitutional requirement to fund education (K-12) first. In the case of Guinn vs. Legislature, the Nevada Supreme Court decided that Education, and the funding thereof, is a fundamental right. They also said that the 2/3 majority requirement to increase taxes would be overridden by this right. That is what has made this case problematic. That aspect of the case was later overturned by the Nevada Court. Nonetheless, the Nevada Constitution still requires education to be fully funded.

So what of that? The school of thought is that the high Court will not waive the 2/3 majority rule. Even so, shouldn’t they require the legislature to reasonably fund education? I do not think that 50 kids to a class room constitutes reasonable funding. Any bill that comes out of the legislature that tries to further cut funding of education (k-12) should be unconstitutional.

Yes, and Jim Gibbons will put education first! See this hilarious video.