If I was running Cali I would be so ashamed of the state of the place that I would take a voluntary pay cut ( someone might suggest it to Arnie - there would be some votes in it too I expect )
Here is another exerpt from the Las Vegas Gleaner
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May 12, 11:01 PM EDT
Higher education budget compromise reached
By CATHY BUSSEWITZ
Associated Press Writer
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CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) -- After two days of stalled negotiations, Nevada lawmakers voted Tuesday on a compromise that calls for cuts of up to 12.5 percent in state funding for higher education - far below the 36 percent reductions sought by Gov. Jim Gibbons.
With possible student tuition increases that are part of the deal, subject to state university and college regents' approval, the cuts for the higher education system would drop to about 10 percent.
A core group of legislative leaders worked behind closed doors on the agreement, which brings the total budget for higher education to just under $1.2 billion, compared with Gibbons' $844 million plan. The deal then was brought to a Senate-Assembly budget subcommittee for public discussion and a unanimous vote.
The lawmakers' action pushes the overall state spending plan to just under $7 billion for the next two fiscal years. Gibbons proposed a $6.2 billion budget.
The action is a major step in the lawmakers' efforts to finalize a budget for all state government operations. The panel's recommendation now will go to full Senate and Assembly budget panels, which are expected to endorse it.
"This is the only way," said Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas. "Doing this work that we've done is the only way we can ensure a bright future for our state and the children of this state and the students of this state that we depend on to make it stronger."
"While there are those who will try to find the differences between us, I would like to say without equivocation that this process has helped to unite us, and the result is the common goal toward preserving the funding for all of education."
Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, added, "If we don't educate our kids, we will not get anywhere as a state." She said Nevada needs students "trained to move our state forward."
Legislative negotiators showed "as Republicans, as Democrats, as senators and Assembly members that we truly believe you can't improve on our state by decimating the educational system," Buckley said.
The overall budget reduction of 10 percent for the entire higher education system would result in similar decreases for each of the schools in the system. Under Gibbons' plan, budgets for the two universities in Reno and Las Vegas would have been cut by about 50 percent.
And it's not getting better by the sound of it.
Bit like the 3 card trick - a shedload of more money for the fatcats and a bit more American dream for Joe Sixpack.
