February 9, 2010

Greetings!

Governor Gibbons gave his state of the state address last night to address the current budget deficit, declaring he would call a special session of the state legislature on February 23. State Senate Majority leader Steven Horsford followed with a Democratic response. As many of you probably witnessed, the only areas of agreement between these political leaders were that the scale of the revenue shortfall is $870 million and that tax increases currently are off the table.

The public statements by the Governor and the Majority Leader on education focused on K-12 education and not higher education. As a result, we gained very little insight into any potential plans. In the days leading up to the special session, there will be legislative town hall meetings, additional budget hearings in front of the legislature's Interim Finance Committee, and hopefully in the end, a clearer roadmap to a workable budget for the Nevada System of Higher Education and all education in our state.

The NSHE presidents have been meeting weekly with the Chancellor and will continue to do so for the indefinite future. I communicate on an almost daily basis with Chancellor Klaich and will continue to do so. As of this morning, Chancellor Klaich believes that the special session will move swiftly, it will be about finding money so that things do not get worse while issues related to major policy change are not likely to be addressed, and any long list of considerations will be ignored.

As details of the coming budget reductions come to light, I will do all my best to communicate those details and our institutional plans to the faculty, staff and students at DRI.

Sincerely,

Dr. Stephen Wells
DRI