Nevada lawmakers get crash course in education budget ahead of Legislature’s start

CARSON CITY — A panel of state lawmakers received a crash course Tuesday on Nevada’s complex public education funding plan in advance of detailed budget hearings in the 120-day legislative session that begins Monday.

The Legislative Commission’s Budget Subcommittee reviewed 100 pages of documents detailing the K-12 budget, including the proposed infusion of more than $90 million in new revenue from the sale of recreational marijuana. About $70 million of the total would come from a new 10 percent tax on retail sales proposed by Gov. Brian Sandoval in his state of the state address delivered last month.

Recreational marijuana for adults aged 21 and older was approved by Nevada voters in November and is now legal. Retail sales are expected to begin by Jan. 1, 2018. A federal prohibition remains in effect, however, and the Trump administration has not indicated its position on the issue.

Total funding for the major public schools budget, the Distributive School Account, is $1.6 billion a year, up from $1.46 billion in 2016. The revenue comes from both state and local taxes.

The state general fund portion of the schools budget is $1.33 billion a year, up from $1.12 billion.

In all, the statewide average per pupil funding from all sources would increase from an estimated $9,019 this year to $9,168 in the first year of the new budget in 2017-18 and to $9,359 in 2018-19.

Sandoval has proposed using the marijuana money and other tax revenues to increase spending on several programs in his 2017-19 budget.

They include $30 million in new funding for special education programs, $42 million for 25 additional Zoom Schools, which include large numbers of English Language Learners, $30 million more for 30 additional Victory Schools located in high-poverty areas and $4.3 million for gifted and talented programs.

The budget panel did not hear any details at the meeting on Sandoval’s proposal to put $60 million into the controversial Education Savings Account program approved by Republican lawmakers in 2015. The original funding method was disallowed by the Nevada Supreme Court, however, and the program remains in limbo.

That debate will come later but many Republicans are adamant that the ESA funding be part of the final budget approved by lawmakers.

Contact Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-3820. Follow @seanw801 on Twitter.