LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo has indicated he will veto an education budget approved in the Nevada Legislature because lawmakers removed pay raises that would have gone to charter school teachers.
“I’ve been clear and consistent on this. I will not sign an education budget that does not include equal pay for public charter school teachers and make teacher pay raises, including those for charter school teachers, permanent,” Lombardo said in a Thursday statement.
“Further, I will veto any education budget bill that falls short of addressing a serious need for accountability, transparency, and real parental choice. All 63 legislators have been aware of my position for months, and it is my expectation that they will pass a bill that improves education for all Nevada children.” he said.
On Friday morning, Republican lawmakers said charter school teachers at 81 campuses in Nevada were being used as pawns by Democrats.
“I just cannot accept the fact that we are not giving the charter school teachers who are public employees the raises that I feel they deserve, as all teachers do,” Republican Senate Minority Leader Robin Titus said. She said she wants to see progress on additional legislation on charter school teacher raises before she will support the budget.
Democrats control the majority in both houses of the Legislature, and on the committees that voted on the budget Friday. As the committee approved the budget, six Republicans voted “no,” and Democratic leaders railed against political posturing.
A vote against the education budget would torpedo raises for all teachers.
“It’s been made abundantly clear by the members of this committee that we are still working on the charter school teacher pay raise increase,” Democratic Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager said Friday morning during a joint meeting of the Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means committees.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro said the charter school raises will come in separate legislation. She repeated her commitment to secure those raises.
“To the speaker’s point, we can do two things at once. We can approve a budget for the things that we know and then we can also work on legislation to implement things that are new,” Cannizzaro said. “That is not a reason to not vote for this budget.
Lawmakers on Thursday dipped further into the state’s reserves to fund education, approving an additional $115.7 million from the Education Stabilization Account, known as the rainy day account for schools. That’s on top of $126.9 million allocated from the same fund on Wednesday.
In total, lawmakers are drawing that account down by about a quarter-million dollars, leaving it with an estimated reserve of $639.6 million.
