Saturday, February 15, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Senators confront budget horrors

Prison, school officials warn of deep cuts without more taxes

Jackie Crawford, left, director of the Nevada Department of Corrections, listens as Glen Whorton testifies Friday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Crawford said as many as 2,500 inmates would have to be released if Gov. Kenny Guinn's budget plan is rejected. Photo by CATHLEEN ALLISON / AP.

CARSON CITY -- Thousands of inmates will be freed early and thousands of Clark County school employees will be fired if legislators do not approve new taxes, state officials said Friday.

Department of Corrections Director Jackie Crawford told a Senate committee there would be dire consequences if legislators did not approve the tax and budget plan of Gov. Kenny Guinn.

Crawford said she would have to lay off 302 people and release 2,493 inmates beginning July 1.

"This is not a scare; this is the reality of what could happen in our state," she said. "I want to portray to you how grim the situation is."

Following the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting, Guinn said public schools also would be hit hard if legislators do not provide for significant new revenue.

The governor said he asked all 17 school districts to prepare two budgets.

One would be based on his proposed 2003-2005 $4.8 billion budget, which includes $1 billion in new taxes. The other budget would be based on the scenario that legislators approve no new taxes.

Preliminary school district budgets for the coming fiscal year are due to the state in April. Information from district superintendents is beginning to come into the office, and the word is not good, Guinn said.

He said Clark County schools would have to adopt massive cuts if no new revenue is available.

"In the Clark County School District, 2,000 employees would have to be laid off," Guinn said. "Class size would have to go up four students per classroom

All agencies and programs funded by the state would take a huge budgetary hit beginning July 1 if new tax revenues are not implemented, Guinn said.

"This is starting to give (lawmakers) the idea of where we are," he said after the committee meeting. "Wait until you get to education. You would lose your reading teachers in Clark County, and you would lose a lot of your security in your metropolitan schools."

The Washoe County School District would see 600 layoffs, he said.

"It is devastating," Guinn said.

Clark County Schools Superintendent Carlos Garcia said in a telephone interview that the school district faces a $220 million cut in its funding if no new revenues are provided.

Asked about the possibility of 2,000 layoffs, Garcia said: "There is the potential of that."

Garcia said every program the district has outside of the core classroom instruction, from library aides to music programs, will be on the list for possible cuts. The district spends about $10 million a year on security, which would also be jeopardized, he said.

Schools now under construction may not be able to open because there will be no operating funds, Garcia said.

The public will be asked in a series of meetings in March to comment on what should be cut if reductions are necessary, Garcia said.

"By law, we have to have a balanced budget," he said. "This would be devastating to our schools and the entire state.

"And shame on us for allowing it to happen," Garcia said. "Our children deserve the best we can give them."

Assemblyman Josh Griffin, R-Henderson, welcomed the Friday revelations by Guinn and corrections officials, saying the story of what will happen if Guinn's proposed budget is not approved needs to be conveyed to the public.

A freshman lawmaker serving on both the Ways and Means and Taxation committees, Griffin said he has not yet seen where the proposed budget can be cut the necessary amount without cutting services.

"We have to be honest with our constituents," Griffin said. "If we don't do something, there are consequences."

In the Judiciary Committee hearing, Crawford said 13 facilities housing minimum security inmates, 10 of them conservation camps, would have to close without more funding.

Agency official Glen Whorton told lawmakers that inmates who would be released from the minimum-security conservation camps would include some offenders who are serving time for drug and violent offenses. Of the approximately 1,700 inmates in the camps now, 367 are identified as violent offenders. Another 502 are drug offenders.

The other nearly 800 inmates would come from a Reno restitution center, a Carson City prison being converted to use by minimum security inmates and those to be housed in a new program called Casa Grande in Southern Nevada starting July 1.

Lawmakers on the panel said they face tough decisions with demands for more money amid public opposition to tax increases.

Sen. Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, said the information needs to be conveyed to the public if support is to be generated for new taxes. "This is the other side of the story that the public has not been afforded, and that is: What are the consequences of what we're being asked to do in the way of budget cuts."