Retention bonuses restored for NSHE professionals, progress on other bills

 

- State NFA President Kent Ervin -

On Wednesday afternoon (March 29), the Nevada State Senate followed the lead of its members on the Senate Finance Committee and unanimously voted in support of a newly amended version of AB268, the bill distributing the first round of promised retention bonuses for Nevada state employees, and restored the benefit to around 3,000 state-funded NSHE Professionals. The full Assembly quickly followed suit with their approval and the bill now goes to Governor Lombardo in time to meet a promised March 31 delivery.

The reversal came following a robust grassroots effort by faculty across the state who called legislators and urged them to rescind the exclusion. State NFA President Kent Ervin, and Acting NSHE Chancellor Dale Erquiaga, both provided testimony in a Finance Committee hearing last week asking for restoration of the bonuses for faculty. The cost for including the higher education professionals was pegged at $3.5 million.  In his testimony, Erquiaga said NSHE would also honor the bonuses for non-state funded employees, an apparent commitment to use internal sources of funding for them.  

Besides AB268, other legislation has been introduced that could have benefits for academic and administrative faculty throughout NSHE.

Earlier in the week, Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro introduced Senate Bill 440 which includes a one-time appropriation for 2% raises for unclassified state employees for three months, April 1 to June 30, 2023. The bill includes $2.3 million for NSHE Professionals, but it is unclear at this time if that is adequate to cover all state-funded faculty. The intent of the legislation is to provide some relief to the state employees who only received 1% COLA in the 2021 legislative session, while members of the Classified collective bargaining unit received 3%. There is hope that the additional 2% for this group will be on-going if the Governor's executive budget is fully funded.

A committee vote on AB224, the Collective Bargaining for NSHE Professional Employees bill, has been delayed while the sponsor, Assemblywoman Sarah Peters, considers a range of amendments submitted by various stakeholders, primarily NSHE. The bill enjoys widespread, bipartisan support in the Legislature.

Additionally, A special meeting of the Joint Budget Committees will examine state worker wages and benefits include PEBP and PERS. That meeting is expected to take place on Thursday, March 30.