Lawmakers, university officials agree on new funding formulas

Legislators and Nevada university officials have agreed on new funding formulas designed to eliminate inequities between Reno and Las Vegas without consuming a bigger piece of the state budget.

Under the plan, the university system will continue to get about the same percentage of the total state general fund as it has been receiving - 19.5 percent.

The formulas determine how much money each campus gets for instruction, research, libraries, staff, operations and maintenance. Amounts are determined by how many undergraduate, graduate and special classes of students there are, how many professors, square feet of total buildings to maintain and other such data.

The formulas will be reviewed and finally sent to the 2000 Legislature for action.

Southern regents and lawmakers complained during the 1999 Legislature that the old system created in 1986 was costing the Southern campuses millions of dollars a year they needed to handle growth while overfunding some programs in the Northern campuses.

They said Southern campus budgets need up to $20 million to match what UNR has been getting per student.

The new formula will standardize starting salaries statewide and give campuses more flexibility in how they spend their money.

The old formula separated budgets for academic support, instruction, maintenance, research and other categories. The new system allows campuses to move money between categories to meet changing needs.

Regent Steve Sisolak, who led the "equity" charge during the last legislative session, said the new system is fair because it matches funding to total need - including growth.

But to make sure the University of Nevada, Reno in particular isn't stripped of funding by a sudden change, the new rules give UNR four years to make the adjustment.

"The formula adjustment as a whole is making a big step in curing the problems," said Sisolak.

"It gives the authority to the people who are managing the campuses," said fellow regent Doug Seastrand.

But both conceded that lawmakers are rightfully worried the new flexibility will again generate inequities.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, pointed out that it was decisions on individual campuses which created the inequities, not the Legislature.

An example: One campus using funds to raise pay, while another increases total staff. In the next budget, the campus with higher pay argues it needs more staff to match the other while the second campus seeks more money to match the salaries paid by the first.

Raggio said that sort of "whipsaw" to get more money from the Legislature must come to an end.

Acting Chancellor Jane Nichols said that wouldn't happen and if it does, the total funding should be traced back to those individual decisions by campus officials.

"It's a huge step forward, but the responsibility ultimately falls on the Board of Regents to make sure it doesn't get out of whack," said Sisolak.

Because the system is designed to adjust funding between the campuses without increasing the percentage of total state budget that goes to higher education, it relies on increasing total state revenues to cover growing campus needs.

Altogether, the university's budget for the current two-year cycle is about $950 million. The board will hammer out its budget request for the next two years at at meeting Friday.