By Mark Waite

Great Basin College students can expect to pay $9 more per credit, a 13-percent increase, when they start school in September. Another 13 percent increase awaits students in September 2012 after the state Legislature cut the Nevada System for Higher Education’s budget this year.

Gov. Brian Sandoval originally proposed a $7.3 million budget cut to Great Basin College, but a Nevada Supreme Court ruling denying the state the ability to grab other funds, ended up producing a $5 million cut to the college system. Based on that court decision, which involved $62 million in Clean Water Coalition funds, the state Legislature elected to extend taxes that were set to sunset in the 2011 session.

The cuts are still significant in that Great Basin College had to cut 20 positions, seven of them faculty members, Great Basin College Chief Development Officer John Rice said after a recent video conference meeting outlining the 2011-12 school year budget. Rice said those positions were eliminated last year.

“So it will not mean there will be additional layoffs, but the positions have been eliminated from our budget and it will probably be years, if ever, before we will get them back,” Rice said.

The college won’t be able to offer about 70 sections of course work, which means about 1,400 students won’t be able to enroll in classes they might need, he said.

Tuition will increase from $69.25 per credit to $78.25, a 13 percent increase, next fall. The tuition will go up another 13 percent to $88.50 per credit, in the fall of 2012.

For the student taking a full load of 15 credits that would amount to a hike from $1,038.75 per semester to $1,173.75 in the fall semester, and $1,327.50 in fall 2012, plus any additional fees.

Upper level, or postgraduate courses, will go up from $113.25 per credit to $128 next fall.

The tuition increases will raise $20 million in revenue for the system, according to a presentation by Great Basin College.

Rice said the $5 million budget cut means less dollars to circulate in a community. But Rice expressed gratitude to Assembly Minority Leader Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka and State Senator Dean Rhodes, R-Tuscarora, for their support of the negotiated budget, which provided relief for higher education opportunities for rural Nevadans. They were the only legislators in the Great Basin College service area to support the recommended budget, he said.

Nevada District 36 Assemblyman Ed Goedhart, R-Amargosa Valley, said 80 percent of college education costs are already paid by taxpayers. He voted against the Legislature’s budget plan.

“So is it unreasonable for them to chip in 20 or 25 percent? I don’t think so,” Goedhart said.

The governor’s original budget would have cut the funding for Great Basin College 16.4 percent, from $557.9 million to $466.4 million in the 2012 budget and 29.1 percent for 2013, down to $395.5 million.

The Great Basin College budget ended up being cut to $472.4 million for 2012 and 2013, a 15.3 percent reduction. The college asked state legislators to even out the budget cut for both years of the state biennium.

Great Basin College officials said they could add $400,000 more revenue from new enrollments, but at the time GBC is experiencing a reduction in registration, possibly due to new enrollment software.

The college’s priority is to restore as many teaching positions as possible in 2012 and 2013. Their budget report states the college can restore seven temporary teaching positions and pursue tenure track for them in 2013.

Regular employees will have their base pay reduced by 2.5 percent, with the new budget. Six furlough days each year will cut their salary another 2.3 percent. The furlough days must not interfere with class teaching.

“I have been asked if we are happy with this outcome. My response is, we are not as sad as we thought we would be,” Rice said.

Pahrump Great Basin College Director Bill Verbeck voluntarily resigned in a budget-cutting measure. His position won’t be refilled, Rice said. Two other positions became vacant in the Pahrump campus, one of them a classified employee; they also won’t be refilled, he said.

No “Pahrump-centric” courses, or those taught primarily out of Pahrump, are being eliminated, Rice said, rather the cuts will be from across the GBC service area. Most instruction is through interactive video with instructors located elsewhere in the Great Basin College system.

In other action, Rice said the Nevada Legislature approved $10 million to extend Millennium Scholarships through the 2013 fiscal year. A Senate Bill encourages recipients to volunteer for at least 20 hours of community service each year.

Other bills passed in the 2011 session would set up a committee to study the funding of higher education and restructure the State Board of Education into an appointed, not elected board.

Bills that didn’t pass would have banned smoking on higher education campuses, authorize carrying concealed weapons, remove the system from the State Public Works Board, authorize the system of higher education to retain certain fee revenues and create a stadium at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.