Throughout the session, NFA was tracking bills that had any and all NSHE connections.  Some bills (not listed here) were related to teaching or other professional licensure or practice compacts, or had very specific connections to specific programs (meat harvesting anyone?). We focused mostly on issues that impacted most institutions or that helped with educational access and attainment.

Notable bills that made it through the session include:

• AB 153: Offers financial aid information and assistance with filling out the FAFSA for incarcerated persons.

• AB 269: Student loan repayment for providers of health care in underserved communities.

• AB 286: Establishes pilot programs for NSHE institutions to assess competencies of teachers using alternative licensure paths.

• AB 289: “The Board of Regents may establish a course in financial literacy.” This single sentence bill indicates a curricular priority of the legislature. Most institutions testified in support as they already provide financial literacy education in some form (specific course at UNLV, programming in orientation weeks by other institutions, elective courses, etc.).

• AB 345: Assemblymember Mosca’s constituent interest bill requires NSHE to develop policies around open education or low-cost course resources (a priority of NSHE student government leaders), study food insecurity issues experienced by students, and for NSHE to create data dashboards to track Nevada high school student success in NSHE institutions including whether they enroll in co-requisite courses, find employment after graduation, and completion rates.

• AB 394: NSHE institutions must create emergency plans for addressing opioid overdoses. This type of program is already available at some institutions, so this would help bring similar resources to all institutions.

• AB 462: Creates a Career Pathways Oversight Committee that includes NSHE members with one charge to evaluate dual enrollment programs offered by institutions; another part of the bill provides for financial aid and scholarships for teachers of dual enrollment programs to pursue graduate education in NSHE institutions. 

• SB 266: Providers of behavioral health services in underserved areas offered student loan repayment.

• SB 293: Allows institutions to directly compensate student athletes for name, image, and likeness or enter into other contracts related to NIL with the athletes.

• SB 406: NSHE cannot be sued for issues related to education delivered in Spring 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Governor Vetoes Bills Related to Freedom to Read and Research

Governor Lombardo issued a lot of vetoes this session, including other bills supported by NSHE and NFA. AB 416 would have prevented banning or labeling books in NSHE libraries that Regents found offensive and would have required a developing policy to prevent limiting access to library resources. The bill also had similar provisions for K-12 and public libraries and would require anyone who wants to ban a book to go to court to make this request. The Governor vetoed this bill on the basis that it takes decision making out of parents and school district hands. Notably, Regent Boylan stated in the June quarterly meeting that he was very opposed to this bill (as he claimed it was nasty towards Regents), and was glad of the veto.

Lombardo vetoed two bills that were specifically brought forth by UNLV students (SB 156) and initiated by UNLV faculty (AB 328). SB 156 would address gun violence prevention and education by allowing the Attorney General to receive funds and provide grants for research on gun violence and prevention. This bill was amended over the course of the session with gun rights advocates first opposed for the state funding anything that might highlight negative impacts of guns and then opposed that funding would come from outside groups (such as Moms Demand Action) to fund gun violence prevention research. Knowing this bill was initiated by UNLV students and would support research efforts, NFA supported. Similarly, AB 328 would create a commission to study the impact of race and discrimination in Nevada and offer policy recommendations. The bill was also later amended to include a different committee related to Juneteenth. The Governor vetoed this bill solely due to the Juneteenth committee as that included a provision that local governments that celebrate Juneteenth should contribute to a Juneteenth Educational and Economic Fund. We wonder if the Governor would have still allowed the Racial Justice Study Committee to move forward.

Still Debating NSHE as the 4th branch of government

A last-minute bill (AB 600) aimed to clarify that different state agencies and boards are directly under a specific branch of government even though they might live in different parts of state statute. NSHE is one of those agencies that does have its own constitutional provision, so by a ruling of the Nevada Supreme Court, NSHE does technically operate autonomously from the Executive branch. Although the bill would not affect NSHE’s status, because the Nevada Supreme Court had not directly ruled on other agencies, the Governor vetoed this bill worried that it might be unconstitutional (and, we guess, affirms he sees NSHE as a fourth branch of government?). 

***

Articles in this series:

• A Recap of the 83rd Legislative Session by the NFA Government Relations Team
• The 83rd Legislative Session and the NSHE Budget: The Bills, Blow-Ups, and What Died
• [PREVIOUS] NFA's Report and Outlook on the 2025-2027 NSHE Budget 
• Higher Education Legislation of the 83rd Session
• [NEXT] The Board of Regents Vote to Suspend Merit for the Next Biennium
• Legislative Wins for Public Employees in the 83rd Legislative Session
• The Many Vetoed Collective Bargaining Bills by Governor Lombardo

This session was full of many election reform bills (most vetoed), education related bills (lots happening in that K-12 space), and public worker/labor related bills. Although there were not many successes for public sector workers (as there never are in bad budget years), there were a few notable wins:

• AB 232: School district employees will now get a full year of credit towards their Public Employee Retirement Systems (PERS account) as long as they work 900 hours a year. For some education paraprofessionals or other workers (bus drivers, office administrators, etc.), their full workday might be less than 8 hours, so they previously only received a partial year credit.

• SB 418: provides more mechanisms to collect delinquent PERS payments when agencies or schools do not pay their share. Charter schools have been one of the main culprits of delinquent payments, with some charter schools closing before they pay up on these accounts. Our own Kent Ervin gave notable testimony on this issue as covered in the Nevada Current. 

• AB 356: Changes the timelines for collective bargaining by public employee groups so that contracts can be finalized before the Governor finalizes the executive budget proposal. If the Governor cannot budget for the agreed upon contract terms, rationale also has to be provided. This should prevent problems as we saw this legislative session when bargaining agreements for AFSCME and other public workers were not approved until near the end of the legislative session and where the Governor did not include anything in the executive budget related to expected contract salary increases that might result from the negotiations. As we can attest, the Governor not anticipating outcomes of the CBA negotiations did not sit well with quite a few members of the Assembly Ways and Means committee.

• AB 596: This bill funds appropriations for state public workers in collective bargaining units. Although the negotiations and approved contracts for these groups included cost of living and other funding asks, given the budget constraints, the state was not able to fund the full negotiated contract amounts. For these workers, they still will receive a small cost-of-living increase and retention bonuses. If NSHE faculty and professionals were in state-recognized bargaining units, we, too, might have been able to get contracted raises from the legislature. Without our collective bargaining rights in statute, we rely on NSHE and our institutions to budget in raises (as with merit pay).

One bill we aren’t really sure whether to see this as a full win is SB 161 that was brought forward by the Clark County Educators Association (CCEA). We should note that the Nevada State Education Association (NSEA) was opposed to this bill in all its iterations as it leaves out different educator and education worker groups they represent. The bill was originally introduced as a compromise: instead of CCEA sponsoring a ballot initiative to make it legal for some K-12 teachers to go on strike, the bill initially limited strike rights to being court approved. It also changes processes related to arbitration to hopefully allow those to be resolved more quickly. Somehow the bill was amended to remove the court approval  part, which basically allows some teachers and employee organizations representing teachers to engage in strikes, as long as they are not district wide. We’re still not sure how this one got signed by the Governor, but as these changes are now part of the same state law that covers all other public employee collective bargaining (where we are trying to get into), we will have to see how these provisions play out.

***

Articles in this series:

• A Recap of the 83rd Legislative Session by the NFA Government Relations Team
• The 83rd Legislative Session and the NSHE Budget: The Bills, Blow-Ups, and What Died
• NFA's Report and Outlook on the 2025-2027 NSHE Budget 
• Higher Education Legislation of the 83rd Session
• [PREVIOUS] The Board of Regents Vote to Suspend Merit for the Next Biennium
• Legislative Wins for Public Employees in the 83rd Legislative Session
• [NEXT] The Many Vetoed Collective Bargaining Bills by Governor Lombardo

As previously reported, the main NSHE budget (base and main enhancements) approved left funding mostly flat in comparison to the previous biennium. We avoided some of the negative budget impact proposed by the new funding formula (as that was not implemented) and the legislature did include the small institution factor funding and research space funding for our research institutions. 

THe One-SHot APpropriations

The more positive budget news from this legislative session was extra one-shot appropriations added in addition to the Governor’s recommended one-shot appropriations benefiting institution infrastructure, specific education programs, and research. Some one-shots that really are continuing costs to our institutions (such as the salaries covered by cost-of-living increases) were initially in the base NSHE budget, but changed to one-shots to reconcile the Governor's original budget that came to the legislature with a $335M deficit.

In addition to the $11M campus safety funding (AB567) and COLA backfill funding AB568:, this included:

• SB 498: Nursing Expansion: This continues the $10M/year to support nursing education at all our institutions. Additionally, the legislature amended it to add another $1.5M for WNC and $2.5M to NSU to support their facilities related to their nursing programs.

• SB 427: NSHE Capital Improvement Projects: This bill began as planning funding for the UNR Life Sciences Building ($6.2M) and the UNLV Business Building ($6.2M), and the legislature amended it to add in $1.1M for WNC’s Observatory, $300K for CSN’s Northwest campus, $3.5M for TMCC building improvements, and $2.4M to GBC for building improvements and HVAC systems.

• SB 119: NV Grow Program, $1.2M to CSN to continue to implement the program.

• SB 486: $10.7M to the Promise Scholarship Account 

Funding was also appropriated for grant funding related to the Youth Behavioral Risk Survey (AB 331); Funding for the UNLV Law School pro bono work (AB 476); Funding for NSHE programs offering degrees in behavioral health and wellness practitioners (SB 165); Graduate Medical Education grants (SB 262), DRI’s Cloud Seeding Program (SB6); UNLV Dental School funding for cleft and craniofacial care (SB280); and NSU license plates with proceeds going to athletics and student food and basic needs programs (SB181).

THe Blow-UP

We should note that although NSHE and institution lobbyists coordinate, they are not always in lockstep or fully sticking to the Regent approved funding priorities. As example, we watched AB 379 that would appropriate funds for CSN’s Northwest campus. Curiously, this bill only listed a $1 appropriation and passed out of Assembly Ways and Means with still that $1 appropriation. It was only during the Senate Finance hearing that the actual intent of the bill was made known. In the hearing, CSN VP of External Affairs Clarissa Cota asked to amend the bill to be a $500,000 appropriation and that the $1 appropriation was just a placeholder until end of session appropriations could be doled out. The Chair and Vice Chair of the Senate Finance Committee were not very happy about this surprise (as you can see in the hearing here), and based on the other NSHE representative in the room in Carson City, they didn’t know this bill was still out there nor that they would do a surprise appropriate ask in the hearing. Although this particular $1 wonder bill died, CSN still got some appropriation in SB 427.

What Could Have Been (But Died in the Process)

Throughout the session, there were a number of other bills with financial benefits (or impacts) to NSHE that did not make it through the session. Those include:

• SB 472: This bill would have increased the weighted-student-credit hour amounts adjusted for inflation and given additional appropriations to institutions with increased enrollments. This bill got lost in the 11th hour shuffle, where the Assembly tried to amend the bill to reduce appropriations and delay the implementation until 2026, but the Senate did not agree. As the clock struck midnight, this difference was not reconciled and the bill died

• AB 397: This bill originally started out as just requiring fee waivers for homeless students, but later was amended to help standardize most of the current fee waivers offered by NSHE. The Native Student fee waiver was only amended to update some language on tribes eligible, but other waivers were all made to be “last dollar” waivers–meaning students would first apply any federal aid, scholarships, or grants before the waiver would be applied. The Governor vetoed this bill specifically because he did not want the “last dollar” provision to be applied to waivers related to veterans or the National Guard. This was one of two other fee waiver bill casualties of the session.  SB 237 was a fee waiver for dependents of deceased first responders that never made it out of committee. AB 532 was the first bill to attempt standardizing fee waivers, which brought lots of opposition from tribal communities as it would reduce the current waiver provisions for them. 

• AB 139 never had a hearing, but would have provided funding to subsidize schools to pay for dual/concurrent enrollment programs. SB 181 (NSU’s license plate bill) also originally had language about appropriations for dual enrollment that was amended out.

• SB 429 would have provided scholarships for those pursuing social work degrees, but this bill died early on in the session.

We note these failed bills only because we are sure that fee waiver bills will come up again next session, and certainly we can track other grant or scholarship programs proposed for different professional or degree areas.

***

Articles in this series:

• [PREVIOUS] A Recap of the 83rd Legislative Session by the NFA Government Relations Team
• The 83rd Legislative Session and the NSHE Budget: The Bills, Blow-Ups, and What Died
• [NEXT] NFA's Report and Outlook on the 2025-2027 NSHE Budget 
• Higher Education Legislation of the 83rd Session
• The Board of Regents Vote to Suspend Merit for the Next Biennium
• Legislative Wins for Public Employees in the 83rd Legislative Session
• The Many Vetoed Collective Bargaining Bills by Governor Lombardo

Just as our national organizations of AAUP and AFT advocate on behalf of all faculty on legislation, initiate lawsuits, and support faculty at member institutions, your membership in the Nevada Faculty Alliance also comes with advocacy for faculty at our Nevada State Legislature. Yes, NFA, you have lobbyists in Carson City!  

This year we were working with an expanded team with Kent Ervin leading as our Legislative Director, Amy Pason as the chair of the state Government Relations Committee, and Doug Unger and Ian M. Hartshorn as co-Vice Chairs of the state NFA Government Relations Committee. With the addition of Amy and Ian this session, we are building capacity to be able to lobby for sessions to come.

Over the past 120 day session, we:

• Testified at 80+ bill and budget hearings.

• Met individually with legislators over 95 times.

• Collaborated with other public employee and labor groups on legislation.

• Coordinated with NSHE and institution lobbyists on shared priorities.

• Handed out numerous one-pagers of legislative priorities, end-of-session priorities, and information specific to AB 191 and AB 188. 

• Sent weekly email updates to members signed up for legislative updates.

• Sent action alerts related to bill hearings and Board of Regents meetings.

• Wrote op-eds (This is Reno; and one forthcoming in the Nevada Independent) and press releases related to collective bargaining.

• Analyzed data and created charts related to budget and benefits (you can review on NFA Headlines).

• Enjoyed solidarity and strategizing at AFL-CIO sponsored events.

To sum up the 83rd Session, we offer:

• The Good: Passage of mandatory Regent training, and one-shot money appropriations for our main priorities of campus safety and to backfill budget deficits from last session’s historic cost of living increases.

• The Bad: Collective bargaining for NSHE professionals (faculty and graduate assistants) died in committee; bill to restore retiree health benefits for state public employees was gutted, passed both houses, but then vetoed.

• The Ugly: Governor Lombardo breaks his own veto record, much of it targeted at pro-worker and pro-education legislation.

Our Legislative Wins:

• SB 322 Regent Training was signed by the Governor on May 31, after unanimous support in both houses. Working with bill sponsor Senator Angie Taylor, we modeled this legislation after similar legislation for K-12 Boards of Trustees, and even helped facilitate adding bipartisan sponsorship with the addition of Assemblymember Alexis Hansen. Although the required training is minimal (open meeting law and anti-discrimination every other year), the bill also includes a list of other necessary topics and a reporting requirement to hold Regents accountable to this training.

• AB567: $11M towards campus security funding. Following the events at UNLV, ensuring that all our institutions are safe for faculty, staff, and students has been a priority of our advocacy. This funding was part of the Governor’s recommended budget, and although not the full $38M requested by NSHE to meet safety needs, NFA advocated for this as our top one-shot funding priority.

• AB568: NFA’s advocacy for the Regents to approve the historic 12% and 11% COLA raises last session meant that NSHE did have funding gaps to cover (as the legislature only funded around 60% of the total cost of those COLAs). Although we would have preferred the legislature to increase the NSHE base budget to make us whole from this increase, we advocated for the Governor’s recommended one-shot to help cover this continued budget gap in this biennium. We are grateful that the legislature provided this bridge funding and explicitly said it was for instruction and personnel costs.

Our Legislative Partial Win:

• SB 494: Nevada Health Authority. One of the Governor’s priorities was to reorganize state health agencies to create the Nevada Health Authority that would oversee the Public Employees’ Benefits Program (PEBP), the Silver State Health Exchange, and Medicaid. As this reorganization impacted PEBP (and had provisions in the initial draft related to the composition and function of the PEBP Board), NFA worked with other PEBP stakeholder groups and the Nevada Health Authority to amend the bill to clarify the independence of the PEBP Board under this new structure.  We also worked to include provisions related to customer satisfaction surveys and data collection to better understand retiree benefits and costs. The study components were also part of AB 188, so including them in SB 494 saved that part of the bill from the Governor’s veto pen.

The Work Yet to Do:

• AB 191: After a successful hearing in the Assembly Government Affairs committee, our collective bargaining bill died waiting for a hearing in the Assembly Ways committee due to the inflated fiscal note submitted by NSHE. We heard that the Governor would have likely vetoed our bill (again) and is principally opposed to collective bargaining by graduate student workers. As noted below, the Governor used many of his vetoes on collective bargaining or worker benefit bills. If nothing else, we have now four sessions of practice with running this collective bargaining bill, and we’ll be ready to bring this bill back for the 84th session.

AB 188:  After a lot of amending to take out the meat of the bill (that all state public employee retirees should have state subsidized health insurance as all pre-2011 hires have), the Governor vetoed the amended bill that merely helped current retirees by raising the cap on their HRA and giving a $1 raise to the state contribution to the HRA for these retirees. PEBP claimed they would need to raise their reserves related to allowing retirees to save more in their own HRAs–and apparently the Governor believed PEBP’s fiscal concerns over those of our retirees. AB188 was one of many last minute veto dumps, so this bill gets automatically reintroduced next session.

***

Articles in this series:

• A Recap of the 83rd Legislative Session by the NFA Government Relations Team
• [NEXT] The 83rd Legislative Session and the NSHE Budget: The Bills, Blow-Ups, and What Died
• NFA's Report and Outlook on the 2025-2027 NSHE Budget 
• Higher Education Legislation of the 83rd Session
• The Board of Regents Vote to Suspend Merit for the Next Biennium
• Legislative Wins for Public Employees in the 83rd Legislative Session
• The Many Vetoed Collective Bargaining Bills by Governor Lombardo

The Governor surpassed his own record veto tally from the last session with 87 vetoes. Unsurprisingly, a number of those vetoes were bills related to collective bargaining and workers. Most of the veto messages noted something about not burdening any business in these bad budget times, but even before the May Economic Forum projections, most of our labor allies were predicting vetoes from the Governor on these bills presuming the Governor is looking ahead on stances beneficial to his re-election campaign. Casualties of the veto pen include:

• SB182: Would require certain staffing levels and health care provider to patient ratios in hospitals. The veto said this would not work without addressing health care worker shortages first.

• SB 301: The right to collective bargaining for unclassified peace officer groups. This veto worried that other distinctions between unclassified and state classified system officers would also be challenged. This does not signal that the Governor would be open for other unclassified groups (like NSHE faculty and professionals) to gain collective bargaining rights under his watch.

• SB 410: This bill would clarify that insurance benefits under collective bargaining agreements for local government employees also means dependent benefits. Lombardo vetoed this one because legislatively mandating subjects of bargaining “put the thumb on the scale” to the benefit of labor. 

• AB 155: Expands collective bargaining topics to include class size for K-12 groups; the veto message assumes this would require building new schools and be unfeasible.

• AB 112: Allows use of sick leave to care for family members without retaliation; Lombardo said that this would mandate a benefit and disrupt collective bargaining negotiations.

• AB 434: Prevents retaliation of employees who do not participate in meetings where political or religious views are promoted by the employer. The Governor was concerned about limiting free speech, even though the bill is clear it is just about not retaliating against employees who do not participate in such meetings. 

• AB 388: Would require employers with 50 or more employees to offer 12 weeks of paid family, medical, or safety leave; state workers currently receive 8 weeks of paid leave. This was one of the “no burden to businesses” veto messages, even though the bills would not go into effect for another two years.

The Governor’s veto arguments, especially against collective bargaining bills, echo a lot of what we heard in NSHE’s opposition to AB 191 (the right to collectively bargain for NSHE professions and graduate assistants). NSHE/Governor prefer limited mandated topics of bargaining because otherwise it get too complex; legislation should not allow the “thumb on the scale” in bargaining to be on the side of workers. Based on veto messages, we can also the Governor and NSHE also agree that we can’t affirm the rights of workers, because somehow that will impede the rights of management.

In the long list of vetoes (check out the Nevada Independent’s veto tracker), bills requiring prevailing wages for construction projects, workplace safety requirements, or mitigating heat or air quality hazards at work sites also got the veto treatment.  We assume many of these bills will come back next session, so their chances of passing will be largely dependent on who is in the Governor’s Office.

***

Articles in this series:

• A Recap of the 83rd Legislative Session by the NFA Government Relations Team
• The 83rd Legislative Session and the NSHE Budget: The Bills, Blow-Ups, and What Died
• NFA's Report and Outlook on the 2025-2027 NSHE Budget 
• Higher Education Legislation of the 83rd Session
• The Board of Regents Vote to Suspend Merit for the Next Biennium
• [PREVIOUS] Legislative Wins for Public Employees in the 83rd Legislative Session
• The Many Vetoed Collective Bargaining Bills by Governor Lombardo

At the June 2025 Quarterly Board of Regents meeting, the Board voted to suspend the merit pay policy for the next biennium. Citing the continued cost of funding the historic COLAs awarded the previous biennium, institutional budget officers noted continued inability to address ongoing budget deficits and therefore inability to budget for merit increases with current revenue projections. NSHE noted that even with the one-shot state appropriations, this bridge funding would not be included in any increased state operating base budgets going forward. NSHE Chris Viton noted that all the institution budget officers were in agreement and had already agreed to this proposal before the NSHE Legislative Budget close. No institution President commented one way or the other about this agenda item. Similarly, this agenda item was not mentioned in the Chair of the Senate Chairs Council report.

NFA gave comment in the meeting that institutions should have come forward sooner to ask for suspension of the policy if they did not believe they had the budget for it; we pointed out that it was clear institutions made no effort to prioritize merit in their biennial budget planning (a point that Board Chair Carvalho underscored). There was some movement from Regents to look at this issue in case funding might allow for merit in fiscal year 2027, but without increases in student fees or some other revenue stream, faculty compensation might yet be left at the bottom of the priorities list.

NFA also addressed the Board regarding whether NSHE institutions could afford the 1% performance pay policy. AB568 provides $29 million/year in funding for the COLAs from FY2024 and FY2025.  Caseload growth was funded except for a new inflation increment. The legislature appropriated $11.9 million/year for increased utilities costs which releases funds diverted from academic programs, and the state funded 100% of fringe rate increases. The extra 5% increase in student fees adds $16 million/year beginning in FY2025 is continuing, and scheduled increases in student fees add another $25  million/year for FY2027 and beyond. There are no faculty COLAs for FY2026 and FY2027. The current round of performance pay would cost about $7.4 million/year statewide in the state-supported budgets. A former chancellor once said a 1% salary adjustment was “budget dust”. Even while academic programs were cut and positions held vacant, the presidents managed to find money for Administrators–between November 2023 and November 2024 alone, NSHE executive and upper management compensation increased by about $6 million in excess of the 11% COLAs. So yes, NSHE can afford the 1% faculty merit pool. This is not a bad budget year that would require suspension of the merit policy, which was approved by the Regents to address salary compression and high faculty attrition. The Board decided to cancel faculty merit pay anyway.

NFA reminded the Regents that issues such as merit is not simply because faculty "deserve" it. As state employees, we see our pay decreased, benefits reduced, and benefits in retirement taken away to balance the state budget. Without advocating for our salary, we cannot plan for our futures.

***

Articles in this series:

• A Recap of the 83rd Legislative Session by the NFA Government Relations Team
• The 83rd Legislative Session and the NSHE Budget: The Bills, Blow-Ups, and What Died
• NFA's Report and Outlook on the 2025-2027 NSHE Budget 
• [PREVIOUS] Higher Education Legislation of the 83rd Session
• The Board of Regents Vote to Suspend Merit for the Next Biennium
• [NEXT] Legislative Wins for Public Employees in the 83rd Legislative Session
• The Many Vetoed Collective Bargaining Bills by Governor Lombardo

2025-2027 NSHE Budget Report and Outlook

The Nevada Faculty Alliance had a constant lobbying presence at the Legislature, advocating for higher education and NSHE professional employees.  NFA worked diligently to advance shared budget goals in collaboration with the NSHE lobbying team, and we also advocated for professional employee compensation and rights.  With the notable exceptions of the new funding formula being rejected and the failure to fund inflation adjustments to enrollment caseloads, NSHE came out very well in a difficult budget year. 

Here we summarize the total appropriations for NSHE as well as instructional operating budgets by institution, and provide an analysis of implications for future NSHE budgets.  (An end-of-session update on allof NFAs legislative priorities is also available.)

Highlights of the NSHE Budget 

Overall, NSHE total state operating budgets are increasing in dollar amounts as shown in Table 1.  The total appropriations will increase by 9.2% for FY2026 over FY2025, then be about flat in FY2027 (small decline partly due to lower fringe rates in the second year).

Table 1. NSHE Total Appropriations
Fiscal Year	State Appropriations	Year/Year Change
FY2024 (actual)	$816,736,844
FY2025 (budget)	$898,940,295	10.1%
FY2026 (operating appropriations)	$982,055,914	9.2%
FY2027 (operating appropriations)	$970,657,934	-1.2%
Sources: FY2025 NSHE Budget-to-Actual Report and FY2025 NSHE Operating Budget, including all state appropriations for operations.  FY2026 and FY2027, NSHE general fund appropriations in AB591, plus individual appropriations in AB568  (COLA backfill), SB498 (Nursing and NSU), SB119 (CSN NV Grow), and AB596 (Classified compensation).  Excludes capital improvement projects, deferred maintenance, and various indirect funding, grants, and student financial aid.

For comparison with total appropriations in prior years, Table 1 includes the total NSHE appropriations in AB591, plus the following individual appropriations: (1) AB568, backfill of the 12%+11% cost-of-living adjustments in FY2024+FY2025 up to 80% at $28.7 million/year, (2) SB498, continued Nursing education expansion at $10 million/year plus $2.5 million for NSU academic programs in North las Vegas, (3) SB119, for the NV Grow program at CSN, and (4) AB596, compensation for Classified employees with collective bargaining agreements (CBAs), which were partially funded.  

No cost-of-living adjustments were provided for NSHE faculty or other state employees not covered by collective bargaining agreements under NRS 288. For non-CBA employees, retention bonuses of $1000/year will be discontinued as of 7/1/2025 and the employee retirement contributions will increase from 17.5% to 19.25%, a 1.75% reduction in take-home pay.  As a result, net take-home pay for faculty will decrease.

For the main instructional budgets of the seven colleges and universities, Figure 1 below shows state funding and student fee and tuition revenue per full-time-equivalent student, adjusted for inflation, from FY2007 through FY2027. Although state funding per student has recovered from the pandemic budget crisis, it is still significantly lower than before the Great Recession. Student registration fees have made up some but not all of the difference. Non-resident tuition revenue has suffered from decreasing out-of-state student enrollment recently.

Figure 1. State appropriations and student revenue per student FTE for the combined instructional budgets of the seven NSHE colleges and universities, FY2007 to FY2027.

COLA Backfill Funding

Notably, AB568 will provide $28 million per year in backfill funding for the 12%+11% COLAs awarded in FY2024 and FY2025, up to 80% per budget.  This is a big win for NSHE, faculty, and students.  This funding helps cover the budget mitigations made in FY2025 to cover the COLAs and other shortfalls: (1) the student fee and tuition increase by 5% or $16.2 million/year, which remains in effect, (2) faculty COLAs delayed by three months, a one-time savings of $19.3 million, and (3) positions held vacant or other budget cuts totaling $27.9 million/year.  In addition, the regular inflationary increases in student fees will be 2.7% in FY2026 (about $8.7 million/year or more) and 5.2% in FY2027 ($16.8 million/year) based on the Higher Education Price Index (HEPI), per the NSHE Predictable Pricing Program, for ongoing revenue of $25 million/year not counting enrollment growth. In addition, institutions with enrollment growth received caseload increases, totaling $22.8 million/year in base funding across NSHE. With the 80% COLA funding in AB568, the $11.9 million/year budget enhancement for increased energy costs,  and the scheduled student fee increases, the institutions should be able to cover the 1% internal performance pay (merit) pool for faculty and fill open academic positions. It is time to restore academic programs!

However, AB568 also states that it is funding only for the next biennium and explicitly instructs NSHE to raise non-state revenue to cover these costs after FY2027. For the instructional budgets, that means the Legislature mandates the Board of Regents to raise student fees and tuition as necessary to continue the AB568 funding past FY2027.  This should be done soon to give students time to plan ahead, but it is also time to reconsider the Predictable Pricing Program—a five-year future commitment on student fee increases is problematic given fast-changing economic conditions. Because of their lower percentages of state versus student funding, UNLV and UNR will require higher student fee increases than the other institutions.

 Raising an addition $28 million/year from student fees and tuition alone would required roughly a 9% increase in per-credit fees and tuition. Since it is clear that the Legislature will only fund COLAs for the state-funded portion of NSHE budgets, a portion of future inflation-based increases in student fees should be reserved for COLAs and performance pay in the next budgeting process, not committed to other uses. The scheduled increases in student fees and tuition based on the Higher Education Price Index will be 4.0% in FY2028 and and 3.5% in FY2029. 

Additional One-Shot Appropriations

Campus security, NFA’s top budget priority, received a $11 million one-shot appropriation in AB567. NSHE requested $38 million plus continuing funding of $7 million.  SB498 continued the Nursing education expansion for two more years at $10 million/year.  SB427 and SB498 provided $6.2 million each for UNLV and UNR for building planning and design, and a total of $11.0 million  for other institutions for renovations and deferred maintenance.

In other funding related to NSHE, the Knowledge Fund, which provides research grants for NSHE, was continued at $2.5 million/year, rejecting an increase to $14.6 million/year in the Governor’s budget. A budget of $50 million/year for Graduate Medical Education largely from Medicaid funding was also rejected, but SB262 provides $4.5 million/year.  

Employee Compensation

Governor Lombardo’s budget had zero cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for FY2026 and FY2027, and the Legislature did not award any across-the-board COLAs. Nor did the Legislature address the 1.75% increase in employee retirement contributions, which will result in a decrease in take-home pay for active employees on 7/1/2025, as described in a previous article on the history of COLA funding. 

Unfortunately, NFA’s consistent advocacy for state employee compensation, including NSHE professional employees, to cover inflation and retirement contribution increases were unsuccessful. NSHE  did not support these efforts, at least in public.

The lack of new COLAs for FY2026 and FY2027 undermines the historic but underfunded 12%+11% COLAs in 2023-2025.  As shown in Figure 2, relative faculty take-home pay, adjusted for inflation, will fall to 19% below the level in FY2009 by the end of the next biennium, wiping out the gain from FY2025.

Figure 2. Net take-home pay based on legislatively funded COLAs, furloughs, cuts, average merit raise, and retirement contribution, adjusted for inflation (FY2009 = 100%).

AB596 will partially fund collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) between the State and Classified employee bargaining units, including for NSHE Classified employees.  However, the legislature provided no funding for COLAs or continuation of retention incentives for non-collective-bargaining employees. That shows legislative intent to increase compensation only for state employees in state collective bargaining units, at least when budgets are tight.

Therefore, NSHE would be better served with collective bargaining for professional employees in NRS 288, with negotiated CBAs channeled into the state budget on the same timeline as for Classifed CBAs as envisioned in AB356.  For the state classified staff bargaining units, AB356 will place compensation increases in GovRec at the outset rather than waiting for crumbs at the end of the session. The Board of Regents opposed AB191, which would have established collective bargaining for NSHE professional employees, based in part on exaggerated fiscal impact estimates from NSHE legal counsel, but that decision will turn out to be short-sighted.

Another NFA priority was AB188 which, if signed by the Governor, will modestly improve retiree health benefits for state employees hired before 2012. Unfortunatley, the main provision to restore retiree health benefits for post-2011 state hires was amended out to move the bill forward in the face of an exaggerated fiscal note from the Public Employees Benefits Program. Our public employee partners worked with NFA on behalf of AB188, but neither NSHE nor faculty senate representatives testified.

There is No Funding Formula

The “old” resident Weighted Student Credit Hour (WSCH) distribution formula was suspended by the Legislature in 2023. The new funding formula recommended by the interim Ad Hoc Committee on Higher Education Funding was rejected by the 2025 Legislature, with or without hold-harmless funding for UNLV and UNR. Legislators found decreases to UNLV and UNR to add funds for community colleges unpalatable, but also were unwilling to provide new funding to hold them harmless. The last time instructional funding was redistributed based on enrollment data was in the 2021 session using the 2019-2020 count year. WSCHs are still used for enrollment caseload adjustments and the Small Institution Funding, remnants of the old formula. Figure 3 shows the history of the dollar value per WSCH adjusted for inflation. The real value per WSCH has declined, meaning lower resources per course taught.

Figure 3. Dollar value of appropriations per Weighted Student Credit Hour (WSCH) from FY2024 to FY2027, in FY2025 dollars.

B+M+E Funding Mechanism

So how are budgets determined? With no funding formula for redistribution among the seven educational institutions, all NSHE budgets including the professional schools and other non-formula programs are funded through a Base + Maintenance + Enhancement process.

The Base budget is the current-year (FY2025) legislatively approved appropriations with adjustments for (the state-funded portion of) COLAs but excluding one-time appropriations.

Then there are “Maintenance” adjustments, including changes in WSCHs at each institution between the count year (2023-2024 this time) and the prior count year (2021-2022) totaling $22.8 million per year, the WSCH component of the Small Institution Factor, and changes in research space square footage at UNLV and UNR. Those are remnants of the old formula. There are also statewide Maintenance items, for changes in fringe benefit rates including PEBP and retirement contributions ($55.2 million for the biennium), for example, which are still funded at 100% from the General Fund.

Finally, there are proposed budget “Enhancements”. GovRec initially included Enhancements for (1) increased costs of utilities at $11.9 million per year statewide; (2) phased-in implementation of the new funding formula at 20% in FY2026 ($4.1 million ) and 40% in FY2027 ($8.8 million) including hold-harmless funding for UNLV and UNR; (3) funding the 12%+11% COLAs from 2023-25 up to 80% per budget account ($27 million/year); and (4) increasing the enrollment caseload adjustment per WSCH from $173.29 to $208.99 to account for the state-funded portion of COLAs for FY2025 ($4.5 million/year). Because Governor Lombardo’s initial budget had a structural deficit, against state law, the Governor’s Finance Office submitted amendments to shift the funding to address past COLAs, (3) and (4), from continuing appropriations to one-shot funding.

At the 5/5/2025 NSHE budget closing, the only Enhancement approved was the utilities funding, which releases program funding that had to be diverted to pay increased energy costs. There will be no implementation of the new formula, with or without hold-harmless provisions. The funding of past COLAs up to 80% per budget was funding through AB568 as a one-shot, but the adjustment of the WSCH caseload amounts for inflation in SB472 failed to pass on the final day of the legislature.

Table 2 compares state appropriations for the seven main instructional operating budgets. This includes the one-shot appropriations in AB568, SB498, and SB119 that are part of institutional operating budgets, for comparison with prior years including such appropriations.

Table 2. State Appropriated Revenue in State-Supported Instructional Operating Budgets
Inst.	FY2024 (actual)	FY2025 (budget)	FY2026 (appropriated)	Change FY2026 /FY2025	FY2027 (appropriated)	Change FY2027 /FY2026
UNLV	$233,991,397	$253,973,037	$292,498,010	15.2%	$288,384,659	-1.4%
UNR	$160,582,630	$173,121,548	$193,434,516	11.7%	$192,345,962	-0.6%
NSU	$32,863,186	$38,814,685	$41,814,624	7.7%	$40,550,038	-3.0%
CSN	$117,591,040	$125,133,833	$131,856,661	5.4%	$128,988,603	-2.2%
GBC	$17,101,283	$18,105,687	$19,151,905	5.8%	$19,110,767	-0.2%
TMCC	$39,918,718	$42,777,073	$50,339,778	17.7%	$49,485,194	-1.7%
WNC	$16,053,002	$19,333,255	$21,890,862	13.2%	$21,883,931	0.0%
Total	$618,101,256	$671,259,118	$750,986,355	11.9%	$740,749,153	-1.4%

An expanded version of Table 2 including student fees, tuition, and other non-state revenue is available.

Ramifications of No Formula

Because no enrollment-based formula is being applied to the main instructional budgets for the seven NSHE colleges and universities, funding per student or per credit hours will diverge as enrollments change over time. Figure 4 shows the state operating budgets per full-time-equivalent student for each of  the institutions from FY2007 through FY2027. The resident WSCH formula was implemented in FY2014 and continued through FY2022. It was successful in bringing per-student funding in alignment for like institutions (the comprehensive universities, UNR & UNLV; the community colleges, CSN, GBC, TMCC & WNC; and the single “state college”, NSU). Unfortunately, that was accomplished by bringing per-student funding down to a lower common denominator. But since the WSCH formula was abandoned in 2023, the funding per student between similar institutions has started to diverge again. 

Compared with either the old WSCH distribution formula or the new formula with a student-based component that was rejected, UNLV and UNR benefit at the expense of the community colleges. The solution in an increase in overall funding for a student-based component along with WSCHs.

Figure 4. State appropriation per average annual full-time-equivalent (FTE) student enrollment for the main instructional budgets from FY2007 to FY2027, for UNLV, UNR, and NSU (top) and the four community colleges (bottom).

Outlook

With no funding formula in place, a legislative mandate to increase student fees, and no COLAs in 2025-2027 for faculty, NSHE has significant budgetary challenges ahead, but the outcome of the 2025 legislative session was positive overall. NFA will continue to push for collective bargaining as a means to promote faculty recruitment and retention and guarantee employment rights.

***

Articles in this series:

• A Recap of the 83rd Legislative Session by the NFA Government Relations Team
• [PREVIOUS] The 83rd Legislative Session and the NSHE Budget: The Bills, Blow-Ups, and What Died
• NFA's Report and Outlook on the 2025-2027 NSHE Budget 
• [NEXT] Higher Education Legislation of the 83rd Session
• The Board of Regents Vote to Suspend Merit for the Next Biennium
• Legislative Wins for Public Employees in the 83rd Legislative Session
• The Many Vetoed Collective Bargaining Bills by Governor Lombardo

Update 6/11/2025:  Governor Lombardo signed AB567, AB568, and SB498 on June 9. SB119 and AB596 were signed on June 10. Corrections to bill numbers and dollar amounts.

Updated 6/13/2025 to add information about scheduled future student fee increases.  Table 2 corrections with final bill signings. Added information about savings from the cancellation of faculty performance pay raises for FY2026 and FY2027.

Your NFA Government Relations Team has been hard at work all session to advance the interests of NSHE professional employees.  Our legislative and budget priorities and advocacy have been consistent.  

We may be too busy in the final hours of the session for details, but we are updating the progress, or lack of progress, of bills and funding in our "End-of-Session Priorities" document. [6/13/2025: Document updated with final actions including vetoes.]

NSHE Budget Update and Explanation

          [End-of-session Budget Report and Outlook now available]

The NSHE budget closings at the Legislature were held on May 5, 2025. The money committees made changes to the Governor’s recommended Executive Budget (GovRec) and set the NSHE operating budgets for the coming year, although there are some decisions still to be made. The difficult overall state budget situation is discussed in a separate article.

Bottom lines: NSHE budgets are largely static after considering inflation and enrollment growth and remain lower than before the Great Recession. No cost-of-living adjustments are in the budgets, but could be added later. The new instructional funding distribution formula recommended by the interim committee is not being implemented, which means that the needs identified for per-student funding for wrap-around services are not being addressed—more changes may be coming in the next session. There are still decisions to be made, including cost-of-living adjustments and appropriations for campus safety. NFA will continue advocating on behalf of our members through the end of the session.

Highlights of the NSHE Budget 

Overall, NSHE state operating budgets are increasing in dollar amounts as shown in Table 1. As explained in more detail below, however, resources are flat or declining after considering inflation and enrollment growth. 

Table 1. NSHE Total State Appropriations
Fiscal Year	State Appropriations	Year/Year Change
FY2024 (actual)	$816,736,844
FY2025 (budget)	$898,940,295	10.1%
FY2026 (May 5 budget closing)	$939,784,293	4.5%
FY2027 (May 5 budget closing)	$927,881,926	-1.3%
Sources: FY2024 NSHE Budget-to-Actual Report and FY2025 NSHE Operating Budget, including all state appropriations and state-funded COLAs. FY2026 and FY2027, NSHE budget closing on May 5 before any additional one-shot appropriations.

For the main instructional budgets of the seven colleges and universities, Figure 1 below shows state funding and student fee and tuition revenue per full-time-equivalent student, adjusted for inflation, from FY2007 through FY2027. Although state funding per student has recovered from the pandemic budget crisis, it is still significantly lower than before the Great Recession. Student registration fees have made up some but not all of the difference. Non-resident tuition revenue has suffered from decreasing out-of-state student enrollment recently.

The overall appropriation increase of 3.2% by FY2027 over FY2025 will partially cover inflation (before potential one-shot appropriations and statewide COLAs), but provide no extra relief.  

Figure 1. State appropriations and student revenue per student FTE for the combined instructional budgets of the seven NSHE colleges and universities, FY2007 to FY2027.

The legislature is funding the Small Institution Funding for GBC and WNC, augmented as recommended by the interim formula funding committee but phased in at 20% in FY2026 and 40% in FY2027. 

In other funding related to NSHE, the Knowledge Fund, which provides research grants for NSHE, was continued at $2.5 million/year, rejecting an increase to $14.6 million/year in the Governor’s budget. A budget of $50 million/year for Graduate Medical Education largely from Medicaid funding was also rejected, but could be reconsidered later.

Items Still to be Decided

The NFA continues to advocate for members on remaining budget issues.

Campus safety, one of NFA’s top budget priorities, has a $11 million one-shot appropriation in GovRec that is still to be considered. NSHE requested $38 million plus continuing funding of $7 million.

Governor Lombardo’s budget has zero cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for FY2026 and FY2027. COLAs could still be approved near the end of the session, but the budget outlook is dim. There is a possibility that the Legislature could address the 1.75% increase in employee retirement contributions, which, if left unaddressed, will result in a decrease in take-home pay for active employees on 7/1/2025, as described in a previous article on the history of COLA funding. NFA advocates for COLAs for state employees to cover inflation and the increased retirement contributions. 

Budget enhancements to fund NSHE for the historic but underfunded 12%+11% COLAs in 2023-2025 up to 80% per budget can still be considered as one-shot appropriations per the Governor’s amended budget. However, legislative leadership has expressed skepticism about funding these continuing costs as one-shot appropriations. NFA will continue to push for action to address the budget cuts created by underfunded COLAs. For the instructional operating budgets, student fee and tuition increases of 2.7% in FY2026 and 5.2% in FY2027 are slated and will help fill the gap from the large COLA increases in FY2024 and FY2025 that were funded only for the portion of the budgets from the state general fund appropriations. (Institutional breakdowns are discussed below.) 

The expansion of nursing instruction funded at $10 million/year in 2023 would need a renewed one-shot appropriation to continue. 

There is No Funding Formula

The “old” resident Weighted Student Credit Hour (WSCH) distribution formula was suspended in 2023. The new funding formula recommended by the interim Ad Hoc Committee on Higher Education Funding was rejected by the Legislature, with or without hold-harmless funding for UNLV and UNR. Legislators found decreases to UNLV and UNR to add funds for community colleges unpalatable, but also were unwilling to provide new funding to hold them harmless. The last time instructional funding was redistributed based on enrollment data was in the 2021 session using the 2019-2020 count year. WSCHs are still used for enrollment caseload adjustments and the Small Institution Funding, remnants of the old formula. Figure 2 shows the history of the dollar value per WSCH adjusted for inflation. The real value per WSCH has declined, meaning lower resources per course taught.\

Figure 2. Dollar value of appropriations per Weighted Student Credit Hour (WSCH) from FY2024 to FY2027.

B+M+E Funding Mechanism

So how are budgets determined? With no funding formula for redistribution among the seven educational institutions, all NSHE budgets including the professional schools and other traditionally non-formula programs are funded through a Base + Maintenance + Enhancement process.

The Base budget is the current-year (FY2025) legislatively approved appropriations with adjustments for (the state-funded portion of) COLAs but excluding one-time appropriations.

Then there are “Maintenance” adjustments, including changes in WSCHs at each institution between the count year (2023-2024 this time) and the prior count year (2021-2022) totaling $22.8 million per year, the WSCH component of the Small Institution Factor, and changes in research space square footage at UNLV and UNR. Those are remnants of the old formula. There are also statewide Maintenance  accitems, for changes in fringe benefit rates including PEBP and retirement contributions ($55.2 million for the biennium), for example, which are still funded at 100% from the General Fund.

Finally, there are proposed budget “Enhancements”. GovRec initially included Enhancements for (1) increased costs of utilities at $11.9 million per year statewide; (2) phased-in implementation of the new funding formula at 20% in FY2026 ($4.1 million ) and 40% in FY2027 ($8.8 million) including hold-harmless funding for UNLV and UNR; (3) funding the 12%+11% COLAs from 2023-25 up to 80% per budget account ($28.7 million/year); and (4) increasing the enrollment caseload adjustment per WSCH from $173.29 to $208.99 to account for the state-funded portion of COLAs for FY2025 ($4.7 million). Because Governor Lombardo’s initial budget had a structural deficit, against state law, the Governor’s Finance Office submitted amendments to shift the COLA funding, (3) and (4), from continuing appropriations to one-shot funding.

At the 5/5/2025 NSHE budget closing, the only Enhancement approved was the utilities funding, which will release program funding that had to be diverted to pay increased energy costs. There will be no implementation of the new formula, with or without hold-harmless provisions. The funding of past COLAs up to 80% could still be considered as one-shot appropriations. 

Table 2 compares state appropriations for the seven main instructional operating budgets. Note that the FY2024 & FY2025 values include various one-time appropriations, such as pandemic enrollment recovery funds and the Nursing expansion, while any one-shots that might be approved this session are not yet included for FY2026 & FY2027.

Table 2. State Appropriations for Instructional Operating Budgets
	FY2024 (actual)	FY2025 (budget)	FY2026  (May 5 budget closing)	FY2026 /FY2025	FY2027 (May 5 budget closing)	FY2027 /FY2026
UNLV	$233,991,397	$253,973,037	$278,254,217	9.6%	$274,141,016	-1.5%
UNR	$160,582,630	$173,121,548	$181,186,466	4.7%	$180,025,789	-0.6%
NSU	$32,863,186	$38,814,685	$37,363,532	-3.7%	$36,095,000	-3.4%
CSN	$117,591,040	$125,133,833	$128,147,482	2.4%	$125,168,672	-2.3%
GBC	$17,101,283	$18,105,687	$18,469,845	2.0%	$18,423,338	-0.3%
TMCC	$39,918,718	$42,777,073	$49,388,135	15.5%	$48,512,158	-1.8%
WNC	$16,053,002	$19,333,255	$21,279,852	10.1%	$21,272,354	0.0%
Total	$618,101,256	$671,259,118	$714,089,529	6.4%	$703,638,327	-1.5%
Sources: FY2025 NSHE Budget-to-Actual Report and FY2025 NSHE Operating Budget, including all state appropriations.  FY2026 and FY2027, NSHE budget closings on May 5 before any additional one-shot appropriations.

An expanded version of Table 2 including student fees, tuition, and other non-state revenue, along with data on the allocation of registration fees by institution, is available.

Ramifications of No Formula

Because no enrollment-based formula is being applied to the main instructional budgets for the seven NSHE colleges and universities, funding per student or per credit hours will diverge as enrollments change over time. Figure 3 shows the state operating budgets per full-time-equivalent student for each of  the institutions from FY2007 through FY2027. The resident WSCH formula was implemented in FY2014 and continued through FY2022. It was successful in bringing per-student funding in alignment for like institutions (the comprehensive universities, UNR & UNLV; the community colleges, CSN, GBC, TMCC & WNC; and the single “state college”, NSU). Unfortunately, that was accomplished by bringing per-student funding down to a lower common denominator. But since the WSCH formula was abandoned in 2023, the funding per student for similar institutions has started to diverge again. 

Figure 3. State appropriation per average annual full-time-equivalent (FTE) enrollment for the seven main instructional budgets from FY2007 to FY2027.

The Final Days

Starting May 12, the budget committees are expected to start considering bills that implement budget decisions and one-shot appropriations in GovRec. Other bills that have fiscal notes will be last in line, if heard at all before the regular session ends on June 2l. The further erosion of the state budget by federal policies, including cuts to Medicaid funding, may require a special session later in the year. Drastic changes in federal funding of state-administered programs could endanger funding for higher education.

Updated 5/9/2025 with dollar amounts for Maintenance and Enhancement budget items, and to correct the purpose of the WSCH dollar-amount increase to account for FY2025 state-funded COLAs (not up to 80%). Updated 5/12/2025 with link to expanded Table 2 and additional information on student registration fee allocations to operating budgets.

State Budget Update after the May 1 Economic Forum Forecast

The Nevada Economic Forum issued its final General Fund revenue forecast for the 2025-2027 biennium on May 1. Expected General Fund revenue decreased by $191 million compared with the December 2024 forecast, but the total budget impact including FY2025 and the State Education Fund could be as much as $568 million. That’s out of a biennial budget of about $21 billion. This article provides some background and additional detail on the state budget situation.  The NSHE budget closing is discussed in a separate article.

Figure 1 shows the history of Economic Forum forecasts compared with actual revenue.  The Economic Forum underestimates future revenue most often, except they did not anticipate the recessions in 2008-2009 and 2020. This session is the first time since the 2007 session that the May forecast has been less optimistic than the December forecast, which means the legislature must reduce spending from the Governor’s Recommended Executive Budget (GovRec) from January, which was based on the December forecast. 

Figure 1.  Economic Forum revenue forecasts from FY2006 to FY2027.  December forecasts for the next biennium (blue patterned columns), May forecasts of the next biennium (solid orange bars), and actual revenue (black line).

In absolute dollars, the available funds for 2025-2027 are still increasing over 2023-2025, by about 2.6% per year. However, as shown in Figure 2, when adjusted for inflation and population growth (estimated at 2.5% and 1.9%, respectively, for FY2025 to FY2027) the available real revenue per person is decreasing--it has never recovered to the levels before the Great Recession and is now dropping below pre-pandemic levels.

Figure 2. Economic Forum revenue forecasts from FY2006 to FY2027, adjusted for inflation and population growth.  December  (blue patterned columns) and  May forecasts of the next biennium (solid orange bars), and actual revenue (black line). *FY2025-FY2027: inflation estimated at 2.5%, population growth at 1.9%.

The lower revenue forecast, as detailed by the Nevada Independent and Nevada Current, is mainly due to lower economic and tourist activity because of tariffs, federal funding reductions, and other actions of the Trump administration. The erratic policies coming out of Washington are making all forecasts highly uncertain.

The General Fund is not the only budget that must be balanced. The State Education Fund (SEF) receives revenues from a variety of dedicated taxes as well as appropriations from the General Fund. The State Education Fund was created in its present form in 2021-2023 and is not included in Economic Forum forecasts, but the Nevada Independent obtained the May 2023 forecast by the Legislative Counsel Bureau.  Comparing that forecast of non-General Fund revenue with the Pupil-Centered Funding Plan Account in GovRec, as shown in Table 1, suggests shortfalls of  $183 million for FY2025 and $212 million for the 2025-2027 biennium (vs about $200 million and $160 million, respectively, as reported by the Nevada Independent).

Table 1. Pupil-Centered Funding Plan Account (GovRec vs May 1 Forecast)
	FY2024 Actual	FY2025 Projected	FY2026 Forecast	FY2027 Forecast	TOTAL
General Fund Appropriation	$1,187,446,261	$1,487,995,964	$1,605,397,182	$1,524,854,793
Other Revenues Dedicated to Education (per GovRec)	$4,251,063,621	$4,261,465,701	$4,321,863,115	$4,493,003,499
TOTAL	$5,438,509,882	$5,749,461,665	$5,927,260,297	$6,017,858,292
Other Revenues Dedicated to Education (May 1 LCB Forecast)	$4,251,063,621	$4,078,421,600	$4,217,315,000	$4,385,677,000
Change in Other Revenues	$0	-$183,044,101	-$104,548,115	-$107,326,499	-$394,918,715

The one brighter spot in the Economic Forum forecast was an increase in projected General Fund revenue of $17.9 million for FY2025, the current fiscal year. Excess revenue from FY2024 and FY2025 may be used for one-shot appropriations (much of it already allocated). Combining the forecast changes for the General Fund and State Education Fund for FY2025, FY2026, and FY2027 gives a reduction of as much as $568 million.  For the 2025-2027 biennium, the forecasted reduction to the General Fund is from $12.433 billion to $12.242 billion (1.5%) and the reduction to the State Education Fund is from $8.814 billion to $8.603 billion (2.4%).  Nevertheless, both are still projected to increase over actual revenue during the 2023-2025 biennium, but only by 1.7%  and 3.3%, respectively. 

The budget committees, Assembly Ways & Means and Senate Finance, have been anticipating shortfalls and have been trimming agency budgets from GovRec.  It’s nearly impossible to keep a tally, but the Nevada Independent reported about $130 million in cuts as of the end of April. That includes a NSHE-related items $29 million from the Knowledge Fund.  On May 1 during the capital improvements budget closing, reductions of a net $141 million from the General Fund were made, mainly by shifting maintenance items to General Obligation Bond funding. During the May 2 NSHE budget closing, the implementation of the new funding formula in GovRec was cancelled, saving $13 million.  That gives a total of roughly $284 million in cuts so far, exceeding the $191 million needed for FY2026 and FY2027 for the General Fund alone.  However, the K-12 education budget closings are on May 8 and 9 and general funds may be needed to compensate for the shortfalls in the State Education Fund.

The Governor’s recommended budget included large new outlays upwards of $500 million for various programs that have yet to be considered by legislative committees, including education, housing and economic development. Legislative leaders have their own ideas. Conversations will continue through the end of the session.

None of this discussion accounts for potential future federal cuts to Medicaid or other essential services or for cuts made by Trump/Musk/DOGE to various programs including Nevada Humanities, AmeriCorps, public broadcasting, and university research grants.  There will likely be additional pressure on the state to provide lifelines to many deserving organizations.