Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

For regents, pending budget cuts are deja vu of Great Recession

First Day of Class at UNLV

Steve Marcus

Students walk southbound in the quad area during the first day of the fall semester at UNLV Monday, August 23, 2010.

To Regent Trevor Hayes, the coronavirus-era budget cuts ordered by Gov. Steve Sisolak to Nevada's higher education system are akin to what regents faced during the Great Recession more than a decade ago.

“When we had the Great Recession, we went from $630 million in state appropriations in one year to $485 million the next … this is very similar to where we were then. If you factor in inflation, it may even be more,” Hayes said Tuesday afternoon during an emergency meeting of the board.

Sisolak on Friday, noting the “new, unimaginable reality” caused by the coronavirus pandemic, ordered state agencies to reduce their budgets for the upcoming 2020 and 20201 fiscal years. The recommended cuts are due Monday in Carson City.

Regents must cut 4%, or nearly $28 million, from their budget for fiscal year 2020, which begins July 1. On top of that, they'll need to identify from $41.7 million to $97.3 million in budget cuts for FY 2021.

Hayes, who became a regent just after the Great Recession, said Tuesday that it was important to stress the effect of the cuts on Nevada's higher education system rather than just talking about raw numbers.

Regent Carol Del Carlo agreed.

“I think it’s really, really important to put dialogue behind the numbers,” Del Carlo said. “It’s really easy to say numbers. Numbers don’t mean a lot to a lot of people, but when you start talking about severity or what the numbers mean, you’ve really got to (stress) the dialogue and impact.”

Multiple options were laid out at the meeting Tuesday, including keeping vacant positions unfilled, reducing parts of operating budgets, reducing travel or furloughing staff. The board will decide what cuts they'll recommend when regents meet Friday.

The Nevada System of Higher Education will see some economic relief via the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act signed into law last week by President Donald Trump. The sweeping relief package allocates some money to higher education institutions across the country, and the American Council on Education estimates that the Nevada System of Higher Education will receive around $59.2 million, half of which — or about $29.6 million — must go toward measures like financial aid.

Andrew Clinger, NSHE's chief financial officer, said the remainder of the federal aid could be applied to help offset budget cuts.