The Board of Regents approved the CSN budget cuts on Friday, April 16th.  Our own Aimee Riley was in attendance, along with Nate Waugh, student body president.

Channel 3 did a story featuring Aimee Riley. Here is the video.

Riley made this statement about the Regents meeting:

The outcomes of today are devastating for CSN, its students and faculty and the system as a whole. To accommodate our budget cuts from the state, we are forced to choose between quality of education and access for students. According to CSN President Dr. Richards, 5,000 math and science students have already been turned away because we cannot provide adequate resources.

I was heartbroken and in tears at points throughout the meeting realizing that higher ed is being decimated piece by piece, year after year. This is not a new problem, we have faced significant cuts for a number of years. What is most disconcerting is that the trend is getting worse rather than better. The cuts are going deeper, to a point that the damage may be irreversible. We are no longer cutting “the fat,” we are now into vital organs.

I feel that Nevada needs to take a drastically different approach if we want to succeed as a community. I recognize that the regents and the administration have their hands tied. Perhaps the legislators have their hands tied too. Who has the final say? We the People. I appeal to my fellow citizens to get involved, let our elected officials know you support education and most importantly to vote!

CSN President Michael Richards (who has an awesome blog we link to on the right) indicates that students will be affected:

Students have been called upon once again to take the brunt of these cuts. It will be harder for them to get the classes they need. There will be longer lines for student support services, such as tutoring and advising.

CSN has much more information on their budget cuts website here.

KXNT had these details:

The state Board of Regents has approved about $7.5 million in budget cuts for the College of Southern Nevada. The plan will cut about $2 million from the remaining budget this year, and about $5.5 million from the 2011 budget. It includes eliminating about 60 full-time faculty, and limiting some class selections and vocational programs. Today’s meeting focused on the budgets of community and state colleges, but state University Chancellor Dan Klaich says a final decision on cuts at UNLV and UNR likely won’t come until June. In addition, regents are considering a plan to raise tuition by 7.5% over the next two years. Nevada’s higher education system is facing mandated cuts due to falling tax revenues which resulted in a nearly $1 billion budget deficit.

Nevada Gubernatorial candidate Rory Reid put forth his education plan, Economic Development through Greater Education (EDGE), on March 22, 2010. He held a town hall meeting that night at 6:30 pm at Bracken Elementary School. He presented his plan to a group of students, educators and citizens and told the crowd that the plan would work for Nevada.

There, an economist would appear and explain that the plan can be paid for and all measures proposed would work. A picture perfect moment was when Dan Klaich, the Chancellor of the Nevada Board of Regents and Co-Chair for the Nevada Reform Task Force, shook hands with the candidate, smiling as if to tell him “good job.”

Let us not forget the fact that we are far from improving our economy, and thus, far from improving our school system.

Although Rory did draft EDGE, with the help of his campaign staff, there are many things that are borrowed from other candidates and our own Governor. He charges that his opponents, Judge Brian Sandoval and Governor Jim Gibbons, only want to cut education. However, Rory Reid made a mistake in the defense his own plan. He failed to define how he will pay for his education plan. Yikes!

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The Nevada Board of Regents will meet tomorrow and Friday to tackle the mandated 6.9% cuts to higher education. Governor Jim Gibbons is expected to attend. A press conference is planned for 10:45 a.m. It is expected that the Governor will propose dramatic changes to the system.

Students from the S.O.S. Save Our Schools movement plan to attend the meetings, along with student leaders and institution presidents. Organizers say that Regents, the Chancellor and other faculty will join students in wearing the black and yellow S.O.S. shirts.

Senator Bob Coffin wearing S.O.S. shirt during Special Session hearing

Perfect timing. Tomorrow has been declared “Save Public Education Day” with a call to action from the American Association of University Professors.

The fight for education is going on all over the country. Nevada’s protests have been noticed elsewhere. People everywhere know that this is no time to be laying people off when the economy is bad, or making it more difficult to reeducate our workforce.

For more information on the Regents meeting, or to watch it online, go here.

Apparently some students are camping out in protest near the building where the Regents will meet tomorrow. See the video here.

If you are interested in getting involved in the S.O.S. movement, click on the recruitment poster below. You can also visit us on Facebook by clicking on the black and yellow Facebook icon in the right column.

NEVADA IS UNAMERICAN

A battle being waged for 5 days in Carson City is coming to a collision point. Like islands threatened by today’s tsunamis in the Pacific Ocean, caused by built up pressure being released, so to is Nevada faced with potential destruction from years of constraint on revenue reform.

Nevada legislators have long been the dog being wagged by the tail that is big business in this state. With few but powerful interests in this state (mining and gaming), the legislature has rarely gone directly against their will. This is why Nevada has the lowest gaming and mining taxes anywhere on this globe.

If that wasn’t enough, Nevada has practically no other taxes beyond very modest sales and property tax. It’s no wonder that Nevada is at the bottom of the heap in spending on essential governmental programs that American’s enjoy everywhere. So where do we stand?

Higher Ed: 48th
K-12: 52 (Puerto Rico spends more per pupil than Nevada)
Fewest government employees per cap.
Least taxes per capita

Is there a correlation with the above stats and the stats that follow?

3rd highest violent crime rate
highest high school drop out rate
2nd highest suicide rate

Is it any surprise that CNBC ranked Nevada 45th in business climate? Quality of living factors into a business friendly environment.

Why does Nevada continue to be dead last in everything? I have been a registered Republican for 10 years. I’ve been to many other states around this country. The kind of conservatism in this state is drastically different from the rest of America to the point where it is drastically Un-American.

Big business claims that we shouldn’t tax them during a recession. When the economy was good, they cried not to raise taxes for fear it would hurt the economy. During recovery, surely they will say taxes would hurt the recovery. Turns out that business thrives in the two most taxed states in the nation, New York and California.

No one is suggesting we try for that. Climbing out from the bottom is all we ask. Let’s try a legitimate effort to fund our basic (and I mean utterly basic) programs in this state, like education, and public health and safety. The fact that all we can do is talk cuts is so absurd. We are backwards to the point of lunacy.

The session is not looking like it will close today, but no one really knows what is being discussed behind closed doors down there. For real time coverage and chatting of the special session, go here.

The Las Vegas Sun is reporting that Jim Gibbons is willing to raise taxes (oops, fees) to balance the State of Nevada’s budget deficit. Are fees the same as taxes? How about removal of tax deductions?

With a roughly $880 billion projected deficit, the governor and lawmakers have their work cut out in the 2010 Special Session of the Nevada Legislature. The Nevada Constitution grants the governor the power and authority to convene a special session to address the specific agenda he outlines. After realizing the brevity of the situation, it now appears the Governor is now prepared to put more on the table than was expected by many.

Raising fees is now an option, despite the governor’s previous positions. A spokesman for Gibbons said “If the group that pays the fee agrees to pay the fee, and the group that pays the fee gets the advantage of the fee, then the governor won’t stand in the way.”

Chuck Muth argues that these fees are taxes and violates the “tax payers pledge” that Gibbons signed. Others argue that Gibbons should not be bound by pledges that have no meaning in the real world. Committing to principles is one thing. Committing to action before an event unfolds is ludicrous.

If the governor demonstrates moderate rationale, I’ll have to give him more credit than previously thought was deserved. It would take great courage to put the “right things” first, and the signed piece of paper second. It would no doubt disappoint some of his core followers.

In addition to increasing fees, the governor is now discussing the removal of tax deductions for the mining industry. Again, Burns defended that removal of a deduction is not a tax increase.

This crisis may find a resolution, but it will take cooperation, and clarity of priorities in Carson City. Perhaps our message was received by the governor’s office. I want to read in the paper in a few weeks that:

“Governor Gibbons and law makers worked together to balance the budget with only small cuts to appropriations from the general fund.”

Nevada Legislators from the interim finance committee heard from concerned citizens about the budget deficit today, February 13, 2010, at a Town Hall meeting at the Grant Sawyer building in Las Vegas and at the Reno City Hall. See video and pictures here.

In Las Vegas, college and university students were present with their signs strapped to their shirts. They were not allowed entrance into the meeting because of the signs. They stood their ground outside, with their message that they may be “whiners” but also voters.

Nevada faces a near 900 million dollar budget shortfall this year, after last years revenue projections did not live up to their hopes. This Tuesday the Governor is expected to officially announce a special session of the state legislature to address the deficit.

A legal question remains as to what the legislature can do to address the deficit. Nevada law limits the special session to address what the Governor calls it for. One legal standpoint says that lawmakers cannot raise revenues unless the Governor puts that on the agenda. However, another position is that the call to address the deficit by the Governor cannot stipulate how they address the deficit. Certainly raising revenue would be a way to address the deficit.

If all this is not bad enough, the expected shortfall next year is expected to be even more devastating. Without dynamic revenue reform in this state, we are looking at an end to the institutions of educations as we know them, and dramatic underfunding of our most vital public programs.

What is holding us back from revenue reform? Nevada has been spoiled for years with next to nothing in taxes. Only now we have a growing state with growing demands, and less revenue because of our almost sole reliance on gaming and tourism.

If this problem is to be fixed in the long term, we need an educated workforce, the infrastructure, the excellent institutions, and the revenue to support a diversification to our economy. Some out here think that a low tax structure will attract businesses. This has not worked and it is not going to happen.

Who will want to come to Nevada when we are almost dead last in funding and quality of education? Who will want to come here when we do not have the infrastructure to support expansion?

It is time to stop thinking that “no new taxes” is a solution to our economic woes. That said, over taxation never was either. Nevada is almost 1st in the country in “business tax environment” however. So we have a great deal of room before we could be considered “over taxing” anyone.

Governor Gibbons should stop whining about taxes, and become part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Video and photography will be added shortly.

Governor Gibbons gave his state of the State address tonight. Here is the complete transcript.

Hello, I’m Governor Jim Gibbons. I am always honored to speak directly to you. But the truth is, I would rather that the circumstances did not compel me to address you tonight.

The great inventor and statesman Thomas Edison once said, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work.” This insight means a lot to me. My staff has been hard at work reviewing the state budget, the services our state government provides and the dramatic shortfall in state revenues. We are working on solutions to turn this recession into an opportunity to reinvent our State’s government. We may never have an opportunity like this again. The dire economic situation we are facing now requires immediate action.

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The Clark County Board of Regents’ emergency meeting yesterday was moving, informative, and alarming. The news is not good. Governor Jim Gibbons has proposed 20% cuts for this year, and 29% cuts for the next two years. The board fears that this could mean the reversal of decades of work, and could spell decades more to recover what is lost.

Chairman Leavitt stressed that advocacy on this issue should focus on letter writing and contacting the following legislators:

Sen. Bernice Mathews
Sen. Steven Horsford
Sen. Bill Raggio
Assemblyman Morse Arberry Jr.
Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley
Assemblyman Marcus Conklin
Assemblywoman Heidi Gansert
Assemblywoman Debbie Smith

You can find contact information here for the Assembly or state Senate.

Please flood the office of Jim Gibbons with emails and calls too.

You can find more at the CSN President’s official blog here. There you will find a power point of Chancellor Klaich’s presentation to the board from yesterday.

Be sure to become a fan of our Facebook page that we started to help advocate this issue!

SOS! Save Our School: Student movement to stop cuts to CSN's budget

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The Clark County Board of Regents will have an emergency meeting to discuss cutting the budgets by 20%. See details below. Here is a link to the agenda.

Agenda 02/02/2010

There are several ways this problem can be fixed. For starters, how about we prioritize education? It is our future. We can spend a little now and make huge gains in the future. What we do not spend now will turn in to huge costs in law enforcement, property damage, lost tax revenues, drug treatment, family counseling, and countless other societal ailments. Cut other less important areas of the budget. There is a 160 million dollar line of credit that the state has access to. Use that for education!

Second, maybe it is time for Nevada to institute an income tax. Many people cringe at the idea. However, what is worse on the economy and people’s lives? Massive layoffs, leading to more unemployment or a small state income tax that is scaled for income levels? By the way, 43 of the 50 states have an income tax. Nevada is emerging as a more populated and influential state. Time to embrace that.

Finally, if all else fails, how about those capital account reserves that the Clark County School District has? Brian Sandoval suggests diverting money from the class size reduction conversion into the general fund and using some $110 million in capital reserves to offset the diversion. Not a bad idea, but how about prioritizing that money for only education purposes?

This is no easy task we face here in Nevada. I suggest that the issue of raising an income tax could better be fought by the teacher’s union in a campaign called S.O.S. (Save Our Schools), because the electorate will better listen to teachers than to politicians. I know politicians do not want to suggest tax hikes. This is not popular. But if it is to save the schools, then why not?!