Higher education holding up budget

CARSON CITY -- Nevada lawmakers have their hands full as they start their 15th week of the 2009 session on Monday, trying to resolve differences in a state spending plan that must be balanced by new taxes and other revenue sources.

A group of legislative leaders hopes by Monday to resolve differences over higher education funding so final subcommittee recommendations can be made on the overall state budget for the next two fiscal years.

The goal was to have the differences resolved by Friday, but a closed-door meeting of the core-group legislators broke up without agreement on the higher education budget.

The plan that is expected to surface Monday will have cuts far below the 36 percent proposed by Gov. Jim Gibbons. Educators said anything in the 15 percent to 16 percent range or higher would be devastating. They held out hope for reductions closer to 10 percent.

In settling the higher education differences, core-group lawmakers also may review in private a long-awaited draft of specific tax increases and other revenue sources to fund their alternative to Gibbons' $6.2 billion budget.

Besides the budget and tax plan activity, legislators face a Friday deadline for approval of one house's bills by the other house's committees that had them under consideration.

Any measure that lacks exempt status and that fails to advance from those committees will be dead for the session.

Lawmakers have busy committee schedules, including the Senate Judiciary Committee discussion of Assembly Bill 116, which revises a law requiring consideration of any "contributory conduct" by domestic violence or rape victims in determining whether they get benefits under Nevada's Victims of Crime Program.

The Senate Commerce and Labor Committee reviews Assembly Bill 95, which would expand the authority of the state attorney general to review mergers of major health insurance companies. The idea is to ensure that such deals don't lead to abuses of market power.

The Senate Health and Education Committee considers Assembly Bill 102, which would allow Nevada, the nation's No. 1 gambling state, to have special court programs for problem gamblers charged with crimes such as passing bad checks, embezzlement, forgery, insurance fraud, or even robbery or assault.

Also Monday, the Senate Finance Committee considers Assembly Bill 165, a plan to revamp the state's "rainy day" fund and ensure that more money is set aside for future fiscal crises.

On Tuesday, the Assembly Ways and Means Committee considers Assembly Bill 543, one of the measures on an "ugly list" of proposals designed to help fill a gaping budget hole. That measure would redirect 4 cents for every $100 of property value from Washoe and Clark counties to the state.

The Senate Judiciary Committee considers Assembly Bill 325, requiring sex offenders to stay away from victims or witnesses who testified against them, and Assembly Bill 380, which imposes civil penalties of up to $1 million on sex traffickers who lure or force children into prostitution.

The Assembly Government Affairs Committee takes up Senate Bill 412, which would change the salary structure in the state Agency for Nuclear Projects, which is fighting federal plans for a radioactive waste dump at Yucca Mountain, so that staffers' pay would be set by lawmakers.

The Senate Legislative Operations and Elections Committee considers Assembly Bill 293, which would give lawmakers the power to block appointments by Nevada governors to high-ranking positions in several agencies.

Also Tuesday, the Assembly Transportation Committee reviews Senate Bill 201, a voter-endorsed measure to raise motor fuel tax rates in Washoe County.

On Wednesday, the Assembly Judiciary Committee reviews Senate Bill 372, which would ease terms of a voter-approved measure that banned smoking in many Nevada bars and other public places.

The Senate Judiciary Committee considers Assembly Bill 495, which would allow for bigger lawsuit awards as a result of negligence by doctors. The bill is a response to a hepatitis C outbreak in Las Vegas that led to the largest patient notification in U.S. history.