Though governor Brian Sandoval urged unity among lawmakers, the budget he unveiled last night during his last State of the State speech didn’t bridge a huge gap between Republicans and Democrats.
The linchpin of his budget is some $60 million for private school vouchers – that is, taxpayer dollars to help parents pay for their child’s private school.
Opponents say this money helps mostly wealthy parents, while doing little for the poor. Republicans say public schools are failing and this gives kids in bad schools a chance to get out.
A lot more was said, and unsaid, during the governor’s speech.
Jon Ralston, political commentator and founder of the new online newspaper, The Nevada Independent, joined us to help sort it out.
PRIVATE SCHOOL VOUCHERS:
Sandoval wants $60 million over two years for the Education Savings Account, a program that allows parents to claim up to $5,000 in state money to send their children to private or other alternative schools. The Supreme Court recently upheld the program's mission, but ruled the financing mechanism was illegal. Senate Majority Leader Aaron Ford, D-Las Vegas, said it's the "wrong priority for Nevada's kids" because any amount of money directed to the account will result in less money for public schools.
Ralston: “It’s going to frame the session essentially. What kind of compromise can the governor get? What are the Democrats willing to give on school choice in order to get other things they may want from the governor? It is going to be the skill at negotiating these kinds of issues. This is the biggest issue that is really going to frame this session.
TAXING MARIJUANA:
The proposed 10 percent tax on retail sales of recreational marijuana would come on top of a 15 percent wholesale tax that already was included in the ballot initiative voters approved in November legalizing pot in Nevada. Sandoval says he will ask regulators to limit the sale of marijuana products and ban packaging that could appeal to children or could be mistaken for candy. All told, Sandoval projects the taxes and fees on the sale of recreational and medicinal pot combined would bring in about $100 million over two years devoted exclusively to education.
Ralston: The governor didn't support legalization... but now that it's legal he figures he's going to get all the money he can. Plus, it's much more popular to tax folks who are smoking weed than it is to tax regular folks or businesses, right?
I think some Republicans will support this. I think they would rather do this than raise regular taxes, expand the commerce tax, or raise sales taxes or property taxes.
The bottom line is I think this has a chance but this is not going to be decided any time soon at all. It will be interesting to see how the "marijuana lobby," which is a relatively new lobby in this state reacts.
STATE WORKER RAISES:
In addition to the 4 percent cost-of-living increase for all state workers, Sandoval proposed an additional 5 percent for correctional workers and information technology specialists. He says additional money also would be made available to cover inflationary costs in state workers' health insurance.
Ralston: We talk at the beginning of the session, 'Oh, the governor's budget is controversial- look at this - look at that.' But you know what, my experience in covering every session since 1987... is that basically they just tinker with the governor's budget. They never change that much. This is a very strong executive branch state. The governor has a lot of power. The Legislature really has diminished power in Nevada because they don't meet that often and the governor can do all kinds of things.
EDUCATION:
Sandoval proposed $115 million in new spending on higher education over two years to address growing enrollment as well as cover half the costs of building a new $83 million engineering building at the University of Nevada, Reno. Funding for UNLV's School of Medicine set to open next fall also would continue at requested levels. He proposed a $100 million boost for K-12 schools with a high percentage of at-risk students, special education and gifted and talented programs. He also asked for $20 million to fully fund the millennium scholarship program to help high school graduates go to college, and more money for technical and vocational training at community colleges.
CAPITAL PROJECTS
Sandoval proposed $36 million for a new veterans' nursing home in northern Nevada. He wants to build a new Department of Motor Vehicles facility in south Reno and a new national guard readiness center in North Las Vegas. He wants to retrofit the Northern Nevada Correctional Facility to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and establish a cyber defense office within the Nevada Department of Public Safety to better guard against computer hackers.
Ralston: I immediately noticed during the budget briefing that there seemed to be the major construction projects seemed to be skewed toward the north... but it is way too early to tell. All of these kinds, the capital projects budget and these major construction endeavors are generally the kinds of things that are used as horse trading in what is called the end of the session Christmas tree, where it gets festooned with ornaments that various people want.
We're at the beginning of this story. We're far from the end.
STATE OF THE STATE:
Sandoval said the state of the state has dramatically improved in the six years since he took office and is "growing stronger every day." He pointed to last month's unemployment rate of 5.1 percent, down from a staggering 14 percent in 2010. He said Nevada has created 198,000 new jobs since 2011 for an all-time high of 1.3 million jobs with 72 consecutive months of job growth. He announced Tesla Motors plans to expand its northern Nevada "gigafactory" currently manufacturing batteries to include the production of electric motors and gearboxes for its next car, the Model 3. That's expected to mean $350 million in additional capital investment and 550 additional skilled jobs.
Ralston: State of the States are full of rhetoric of course they all are. And of course, the governor had a lot of rhetoric last night. The responses from the opposition party often have as much rhetoric without much behind it. These speeches, both of them, are going to be forgotten by later today or tomorrow at the latest. This isn't Lincoln second inaugural or the Gettysburg Address.
The bottom line is everyone wants to sound like they want to work in a bi-partisan way and everything is going to be sunny as we go forward but there will be some serious contention.
Let's not forget another dynamic in this session is that Michael Roberson (R) -District 20, who was the brutally efficient and effective leader of the State Senate and essentially the governor's man in the legislative building is now in the minority. I think he is going to enjoy throwing bombs this entire session at the majority and he'll be very effective at it. And Ford is going to need to find a way to deal with that because Roberson essentially has nothing to lose.
On Governor Brian Sandoval:
Ralston: What Sandoval has going for him, even though he is not the most dynamic speaker in the world, is that he is just so likeable... people just like Brian Sandoval and have since he first set foot on the political scene here. That goes a long way. People like to frame things in terms of conservative or liberal, or Democrat or Republican but personality matters in politics.
One of the reasons that Sandoval has been so successful is he's willing to deal with people across the spectrum. He works very, very hard. He just has so many advantages as governor... his style privately and publicly has been remarkably successful.
(Editor's Note: The Associated Press contributed to this report)
Jon Ralston, political commentator; The Nevada Independent founder
