Guinn offers 2 percent raises to state workers

State employees and teachers will get a 2 percent pay raise each of the next two years if lawmakers approve the budget Gov. Kenny Guinn proposed Monday.

State law enforcement personnel including corrections officers as well as "selected" other positions like nurses will do a lot better than that - receiving an increase of two full pay grades, worth about 10 percent more pay.

At the same time, however, Guinn told lawmakers he wants to cut off the state contribution toward retiree health benefits for workers hired from this point forward. He said current state workers would still get the benefit when they retire, as would those already receiving it.

"Over the next 30 years, this plan will save taxpayers nearly $500 million," Guinn said.

The proposed pay increases are part of a $5.7 billion, two-year general fund spending plan announced by Guinn in his State of the State address, which will be the focus of legislative attention for the next four months.

That is roughly $1.25 billion more than the current two-year base budget.

Among Guinn's key initiatives are $100 million for kindergarten through sixth-grade initiatives, $106.7 million more to handle Medicaid growth, and $107 million over the next two years to expand mental health services.

The university system will get $69 million more to handle an estimated 7,000 additional students, and the prison system budget will swell by nearly $28 million to open the Southern Nevada Correctional Center and the Casa Grande transitional facility and to handle a population now approaching 11,000 inmates.

But Guinn said he also wants to beef up the state's emergency "rainy-day fund." Existing law and legislation approved two years ago already put $122 million back into that fund. Guinn proposes adding $77 million, for a total of $200 million, arguing it was the rainy-day fund which helped the state avoid cuts in vital services during bad economic times two years ago.

The budget calls for $279 million more in the Distributive School Account to handle public school growth over the biennium. But almost all of that funding is needed just to handle the estimated 35,000 more public school students Nevada schools expect over the coming two years - which means the state's per-capita spending per pupil will increase only $71 to $4,431 - less than 2 percent, far less than the increase in school operating costs since the last budget.

Chief of Staff Mike Hillerby said the elementary school initiative and other programs on Guinn's list will augment the total for schools.

The K-6 initiative sets up a fund for schools listed as "failing" or on a warning list under federal No Child Left Behind rules. Guinn said schools can get money out of that fund by developing any type of programs to make improvements in student achievement.

With that latitude, Guinn said, comes accountability requirements.

"And if progress is not made then we must require that leadership in those failing schools be changed," he said.

The University system will get $69 million more to help with growth. That does not include the more than $89 million the system received to replace estate tax revenues now in the university budget or the capital-improvement projects for the various campuses. Altogether, the system will get about $250 million more than two years ago.

Human Services budgets were expected to receive substantial increases, and they did. That includes money to open a new state mental hospital in Las Vegas and creation of early-intervention services for children, and added money for children in need of health care. He said he will expand Senior Rx, which helps 9,000 seniors pay for prescriptions, and increase the number of children in Nevada Check-Up, which insures children of the working poor, to 30,000.

Guinn was interrupted more than 30 times by applause. But the applause for his proposed rebate of $300 million in surplus funds through auto registrations was sparse and less than enthusiastic. A number of lawmakers have said that money could be better used elsewhere.

"I have faith that the families of Nevada know best how to spend this $300 million," said Guinn.

Applause for his proposal to sell $100 million in state bonds to prop up the Millennium Scholarship program was less than he probably expected.

Democrats said they would have a full response to the speech at a Wednesday press conference.

The money committees begin hearing an overview of the governor's proposals later this week.

Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at nevadaappeal@sbcglobal.net or 687-8750.