Nevada Senate gets first look at major budget bills
CARSON CITY — The Senate Finance Committee reviewed drafts of three major budget bills Monday, signaling the end of Nevada’s 2017 legislative session is near.
The committee was briefed on the Distributive School Account, the state worker pay bill, and the Authorization Act, which authorizes state agencies to spend non-general fund dollars.
The trio of spending bills will be introduced in Senate on Tuesday. The Appropriations Act, which covers general fund revenue expenditures, and the capital improvement project bill outlining public works projects for the next two years, will be introduced in the Assembly.
The bills do not become public until they are officially introduced.
But the pay bill reviewed Monday morning includes 2 percent raises for state workers in each year of the upcoming two-year budget cycle at a cost of roughly $58 million.
Highlights of the K-12 education bill include a baseline state per-pupil funding amount of $5,897 in 2018 and $5,967 in 2019.
About $187 million is included for special education programs statewide in 2018 and nearly $200 million in 2019.
Class-size reduction efforts will total $147.4 million in 2019 and $152.1 million in 2019.
The budget bill includes $12.5 million each year for career and technical education programs; and $6.4 million and $8.3 million each year, respectively, for gifted and talented student programs.
Contact Sandra Chereb at schereb@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-3821. Follow @SandraChereb on Twitter.