Governor’s Budget Juggling Results In Less Money For Emergency Repairs At Schools

CARSON CITY – The governor has proposed taking funds school districts are using for emergency repairs to help balance the state budget.
School districts have said this would leave them with little money to fix broken boilers and leaky roofs or perform other emergency repairs.
“We don’t have any money set aside right now to cover those expenses if the governor’s proposal moves forward,” said Craig Hulse from the Washoe County School District before a Senate committee reviewing the governor’s proposal.
The revision to the governor’s budget comes after a meeting between the governor’s staff and school district officials yesterday.
The proposal shifts $319 million from the districts’ debt-service funds to the districts’ operating funds, which is the main account used to fund the operation of schools.
This, however, involves dipping into the bucket of money that school districts use for emergency repairs.
Sen. Michael Schneider, D-Las Vegas, said this was a bad idea. He said that some of the schools in his district have portables that are in “horrible shape.” He called them “rat traps.”
“My message to the governor’s staff is: find some other way to balance your budget,” he said to Andrew Clinger, the governor’s budget director.
A month ago, the governor had tried to balanced his budget another way. Gov. Brian Sandoval had initially proposed letting school districts keep a six-month reserve rather than a 12-month reserve to pay off bonds. This would free up $425 million for school district operating costs.
But school districts later told the Legislature that it could not pay $425 million.
So Clinger brought back a revised proposal.
It is that new proposal that shifts money out of school districts’ emergency repair funds.
Those funds comes from the Governmental Services Tax fund that school districts collect. In the Clark County School District, this equates to a shift of $20 million per year out of that fund.
That would leave $5 million per year for emergency repairs.
The state would shovel its share into the districts’ debt service fund.
The governor’s proposal means juggling money from one account to another. The governor would instruct the school districts to pay for the operating costs of schools with their debt-service fund, then to pay for debt-service with their emergency repair fund. This leaves a shortfall in the emergency repair fund.
Proposal punches $106 million hole in budget
The proposal also leaves the governor $106 million short in his budget, one that Clinger said will not go away until May.
Sandoval had originally planned of using $425 million from the districts’ debt-service funds to pay for schools.
Since his staff has trimmed those prospects to $319 million, that leaves a $106 million gap between the money available and the money that governor wants to spend for his budget.
Clinger reassured legislators that a revenue forecast in May would show increases that would lower that $106 million shortfall.
He is betting on promising sales tax returns as well as a proposal from President Barack Obama to defer interest payments on federal loans Nevada has used to pay unemployment insurance benefits.
That is an extra $66 million that could be added back into the budget to reduce the $106 million gap.
For some Senators, Clinger’s reassurance was not enough. Sen. Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, said he does not want to wait until a May revenue forecast to discover a $106 million hole exists or not.
“I am extremely disappointed. The state cannot wait until May to make decisions about how we’re going to fund education, health care and public safety,” he said.

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