Lawmakers vote to cut millions from school safety and higher ed budgets, raise per-pupil school fund
Legislative money committees have made some major cuts to the governor’s K-12 and higher education budgets as they try to address a shortfall some say is at least $100 million and ensure school districts have enough money to deliver a teacher pay raise the governor promised.
Votes this week in the budget committees cancelled proposed funding for “capacity building initiatives” at UNR and UNLV, and cut three-quarters of the $10 million destined for the Knowledge Fund, which helps recruit highly specialized faculty who can develop new technologies that can be commercialized.
On the other hand, the committees preliminarily moved to direct marijuana excise tax revenue — projected to total $120 million over the biennium — entirely to the Distributive School Account to raise per-pupil funding amounts. The move will raise the per-pupil basic support guarantee by $120 in the first year of the biennium and $124 in the second year.
But the decision to redirect the marijuana money to basic instruction creates strain for the education-related programs the money was originally destined to support in Gov. Steve Sisolak’s budget. Marijuana money was initially meant to help keep the Millennium Scholarship afloat for another biennium at a cost of $31 million, and to fund $54 million in school safety initiatives.
Read more: https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/lawmakers-vote-to-cut-millions-from-school-safety-and-higher-ed-budgets-raise-per-pupil-school-funding