Lynne Warne

LAS VEGAS - Responding to the governor's call for a special session Friday to look at cutting increases to teachers' and state employees' cost-of-living allowance, among other possible solutions, Nevada State Education Association President Lynn Warne said the call was "outrageous" and cast doubt on the effect such a session would have on teacher pay.

"It's outrageous that he's calling a special session and it's even more outrageous that he's thinking that he's going to withhold the COLA increase for our hardworking educators in this state as well as their families," Warne said.

Warne said that the COLA increases were negotiated as part of teachers' contracts with individual school districts, so while the legislature can cut the districts' budgets by the amount of the 4 percent COLA increase, it would be up to districts to find cuts in their budgets.  That gap, Warne insisted, would not be filled by stopping the COLA increases.

LAS VEGAS-A deal between the Nevada State Education Association and Station Casino, Harrah's and Wynn may have been reached in an attempt to kill a ballot initiative that would have raised the  gaming tax, but the state's political leaders haven't thrown their full support behind it yet. The Democratic leadership in the Assembly doesn't "anticipate any problems," but Republicans say they are waiting to see the details of the agreement before deciding whether to support any compromise to raise the room tax.

The deal, reached Monday right before a deadline to turn in petition signatures, reportedly kept a Teachers Union-supported 3 percent gaming tax increase initiative off the November ballot in return for gaming support of an up to 3 percent room tax increase instead, capped at 13 percent.

Although the compromise was reached with the help of the governor's office and Republican legislators, the governor's office and Republican leadership are holding off on supporting it until final details are released.