Chancellor Jim Rogers speaks about budget solutions

October 9, 2008 by Jorge Labrador 

“Mind reading is not a method of gathering information.”

When Chancellor Jim Rogers encouraged students to ask him questions at a press conference at UNLV Wednesday, his chosen turn of phrase could just as easily have described his budget negotiations with Gov. Jim Gibbons.

According to the chancellor, communication, or the lack of it, is at the forefront of the Nevada System of Higher Education’s current budget crisis.

“All of the world’s problems are caused because people won’t talk to each other,” Rogers said, adding that winning over Gibbons isn’t an issue in salvaging NSHE’s budget, as his response is always “no.”

Rogers said the state legislature, rather than the governor, is NSHE’s potential savior, as they ultimately approve the governor’s proposed budget.

Along with prison reform, Rogers suggested revising Nevada tax legislation to supplement the state’s budget.

“Nevada is in the 12th century when it comes to tax structure,” said Rogers.

Using his company, Sunbelt Communications as an example, Rogers pointed out issues with Nevada’s tax laws that severely limit the state’s business tax revenue. He added that some companies carry a disproportionately large amount of the tax burden in the state.

“If I just had dinner with some of my friends [and told them] ‘Let’s pay an income tax of 8 percent,’ I could fill the budget again and never fire an employee,” Rogers said, referring to fellow Nevada business owners.

“We don’t have to be a no tax state. We just have to be the best [lowest] tax state,” Rogers said.

According to the chancellor, if the legislature doesn’t fill these regulatory holes, “it’s going to be a black day at UNLV.”

Rogers’ continued assessment of the state of education in Nevada paints a grim picture for the future, should NSHE’s budget be reduced.

“The problem with an education system is if you lose momentum, you never get it back,” the chancellor said.

According to Rogers, a 6 percent reduction to NSHE’s budget will hurt programs enough to reduce the population of UNLV from 28,000 to 14,000 students.

Similar student losses will ensue at campuses across the state, causing a loss of tuition revenue, which in turn, would require a second round of budget cuts.

“You’ve got a death spiral,” he said.

According to the chancellor, the effects of a reduced budget will have detrimental effects on not only the quantity, but also the quality of programs in the state.

“Your better faculty starts looking for jobs [in other institutions]. The good ones can get jobs damn near anywhere,” Rogers said.

“If they look, then their [colleagues] look too. ‘Why go there? It’s got no future,’” he added, paraphrasing the impression cut Nevada colleges would give faculty.

According to Rogers, cuts would be just as bleak for the K-12 system.

“We have a really lousy school system and it’s not because we don’t have competent people,” Rogers said, adding that it is difficult to teach a kindergarten class with 50 students.

He noted that K-12 and NSHE were united against any cuts to education. Cuts to K-12 programs would increase the need for remedial courses in Nevada colleges, whereas cuts to higher education would give high school graduates no in-state options for college.

Rogers estimated that all K-12, higher education students and their parents would add up to half the state’s population, which would be adversely affected by cuts to education, insisting that compared to that his voice made no difference compared to that sheer number of affected students and parents.

“If the students don’t rise up, nothing will happen,” Rogers said.

“You all have got to rise.”