The Silver Lining's Dark Cloud

Sign the Petition

On May 20, NFA President Kent Ervin distributed to all NFA members a petition calling on the legislature to fund COLA at 80% and for NSHE to provide full cost of living adjustments for all academic and administrative faculty. More than 400 individuals had signed by May 21. We urge all NSHE professionals to add their names. You will find the petition here. 

The Silver Lining

By all objective measures, the 2023 Nevada Legislative session has been one of the best in history for the institutions of the Nevada System of Higher Education. Assuming there are no surprises as we enter the home stretch of the session, TMCC will see it's operating budget restored to pre-pandemic levels despite enrollment declines that would have reduced the allocation. Signs remain strong that employees will receive a 10% cost of living increase to their salaries on July 1, followed by another 4% in 2024-25. In my 25 years as an NSHE employee, there has never before been this much optimism this late into the legislative session. 

The Dark Cloud

The enthusiasm for generous COLA increases was tempered by budgeting realities (peculiarities?) during the May 16 special meeting of the Board of Regents (audio here). In a nutshell, the legislature plans to fund about 66% of COLA for NSHE, leaving individual institutions to come up with the remaining 34%. Nearly all other state agencies receive 80% funding for their COLA adjustments under the assumption that there will be about 20% turnover between the time the payroll numbers were calculated last year and when the COLA is actually implemented in July. Historically, NSHE also received 80% until 2019 when it changed to 66%. Back then, the impact of the change was insignificant because COLA was 1%. But the cost at 10% COLA is substantial. 

Right now, the Governor has submitted a proposal to restore NSHE to 80% COLA funding, but it's unclear if the proposal will be successful. For the time being, NSHE institutions need to plan for only 66% funding of the COLA increases. The other 34% must be found internally.

As described by outgoing TMCC Faculty Senate Chair Amy Cavanaugh in her May 18 message to faculty, presidents from every institution informed the regents that it will be necessary to freeze positions, consider layoffs, and other budget cutting measures. Acting Chancellor Dale Erquiaga even raised the specter of furloughs as one of the options that may be considered.

To expand on this a bit more, the legislature funds NSHE at the 66% level because the expectation is that student registration fees can be used to make up the rest. Although all the institutions complain about having to make up any portion of COLA internally, absorbing 34% of a 1% increase from student fees wasn't impossible because fees were going up based on the HEPI index. But the increases have a four to five year lag. Now we have a situation where we are not only trying to make up lost ground for years with no COLA, we're trying to do that on top of a couple of years of high inflation. The student fee increase, however, is based on the inflation rate from 2018-19, which was only about 2%. 

Four years from now, we'll see a big jump in fees based on the inflation that started in 2021. So, because of the BOR Predictive Pricing Policy, there is a gap between when we need the additional money and when it actually materializes in fee increases. One solution would be to temporarily override the policy to implement higher fees now and discount the increases as inflation cools. Regents, however, appear reticent to discuss increasing fees at all. The Predictive Pricing Policy gives them cover.

In such a bountiful year, it is critical for NSHE Professionals to receive the same cost of living adjustment as all other state employees. Diametrically, it is unacceptable for NSHE Professionals to be  subjected to the possibility of furloughs, and NFA must vigorously oppose any attempts to balance budgets on the backs of employees.