BUDGET CRISIS: Gov lists special session options

LAS VEGAS - In a televised address Thursday, Gov. Jim Gibbons challenged lawmakers to come up with a plan for dealing with a $275 million budget deficit without raising taxes, cutting education or reducing state services.

He would like this plan finished by Sunday.

Gibbons laid out several options for lawmakers to consider when they meet in special session tomorrow and a general blueprint of how to address the shortfall, but broke little new ground in the speech. And despite repeated claims that he was giving the legislature "full latitude to consider all reasonable options" he limited them in several key ways.

First and foremost, Gibbons repeated his 2006 pledge to not allow the legislature to raise taxes.

"Any plan that comes to my desk putting an additional fiscal burden on the people of Nevada will be vetoed," Gibbons said.

Gibbons' blueprint instead is for legislators to come up with $128 million in budget cuts, take more than $86 million from one-time expenditures, tap the state's Rainy Day fund and give him more flexibility to move money between state accounts.

On the budget cuts, however, Gibbons said he was against cutting state employees' and teachers' cost-of-living adjustments, a proposal legislators have declared all but dead.

Gibbons also told lawmakers to not touch money set aside for textbooks or teachers' signing bonuses. Reportedly, cutting a $96 million allotment for textbooks has been among options legislative leaders have been considering.

The shortfall will instead have to be found by lawmakers cutting from state agencies and tapping money from sources like the disaster relief fund, which the governor encouraged them to do selectively.

"There are enough options to consider that will reach our targeted shortfall of $275 million, but I expect this target to be reached in a responsible manner, without undermining the quality of our education system or the services to Nevada citizens," Gibbons said.

If lawmakers are unable to find such a deal, Gibbons said he would support securitizing the state's tobacco settlement money, but even that, he cautioned, would have to be done "while stabilizing Millennium Scholarships." Currently much of the tobacco settlement payments go toward the scholarship fund.

Gibbons concluded by proposing a future "no growth" mandate on the state's budget, which he promised to introduce in the next regular legislative session.

Nevada's legislature will meet in special session beginning Friday morning. Gibbons has said he wants the legislature to meet for no more than three days.