The threat of a strike by Clark County teachers, how real is it?

Plus...a discussion with State Treasurer Zach Conine on Nevada's economy, affordable housing, and more.

That's this week on Nevada Week.

♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt.

-Welcome to Nevada Week.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

The State Treasurer is touting record returns on investment.

Ahead, we'll ask him how that money will be spent.

But first, how much money should the Clark County School District spend on teacher raises?

That debate between the District and its largest teachers union rages on, as does the threat of a teacher strike.

Here to explain how valid of a threat a strike is, is Nevada Independent Reporter Rocio Hernandez.

Rocio, welcome to Nevada Week.

(Rocio Hernandez) Good to be here.

-All right.

So as you have reported, it would be illegal under state law for the teachers union, the Clark County Education Association, to strike against the School District.

However, the District thought that the threat was real enough.

They decided to sue the teachers union.

There was a decision in that case, and what was it?

-So the judge ultimately decided that, despite some concerning messages from CCEA Executive Director John Vellardita and a couple of other members, that there wasn't enough evidence to clearly show that a strike will happen unless the Court steps in and tells CCEA, no, you cannot strike.

And that's just because at the moment, right now, CCEA has said that they're going to take work actions, which aren't clearly defined right now.

But they're not really using the word "strike."

They're kind of suggesting that maybe there will be like a stoppage of teachers doing extra work outside of their contract hours, which is about 7 hours and 11 minutes.

So that could be anything from like before school activities, after school activities, teachers staying after class to prepare for the next school day, meeting with parents, you know, things that teachers still do in their day-to-day jobs but aren't necessarily, quote/unquote, required under their contract.

So that could be one example of something that CCEA could do to apply pressure as it continues these negotiations with the School District.

But whether there will be a strike or not, we won't really know until the meeting on Saturday, where the members are getting together to vote on what they're going to do and whether they're going to do it.

-Okay.

And that meeting is August 26.

As we tape this, it's the morning of August 24.

The judge in that case said it's possible she would revisit this case.

And what would make that necessary in her opinion?

-Well, if there's more evidence to show that, yes, what "work actions" definitely means is a strike.

Because as you noted, it is illegal for public employees to strike in Nevada.

And I believe the law kind of makes it that way because as public employees of public, you know, entities, those services CCSD schools offer to parents isn't something that they can just say, you know, I'm gonna go take my kid to a different school that day.

That school is your kid's school.

There's nowhere for you to go.

It's not the same as saying a business's employees are going on strike and you could just find another similar business anywhere else.

You can't.

Parents can't go anywhere else.

If they were to raise the level of a strike, it could be potentially harmful to the education of students and interrupt their learning.

-Right.

How real of a threat do you think a strike is?

-Well, I think it's very serious to get to the level of a strike, but I will say we've seen a lot of back and forth right now between the School District and the union.

I think more than anything, the union is trying to apply pressure to the District, you know, to make them take their demands of pay increase seriously.

You know, they're asking for about 18%.

The School District last offered an increase of 10.5% over the next two years.

The union has been saying that they're standing firm on what they're looking for.

Teachers are suffering right now, as we all are, with inflation, high cost of living, you know, more money being taken out of their take-home pay because of an increase in retirement funds.

So teachers are saying, you know, We need to get this increase in order to not only improve the recruitment of our veteran teachers and retention of veteran teachers, but also recruit more teachers to address the vacancy issue that the District has.

-It's funny because just prior to recording, one of our videographers was talking about his energy bill this past month.

It's something that everyone is feeling, especially teachers who are on those fixed incomes.

The School District claims it's going to be in a budget deficit if it honors what those teachers want, which is 10% in the first year, 8% in the second year.

The union counters, Hey, what about all that historic education funding that the state just approved in the last legislative session, including Senate Bill 231, which is a matching fund of $250 million, specifically for teacher raises.

The School District sent out a press release this week clarifying its stance on that money.

What did the School District say?

-So the School District has already finalized their contract negotiations with the union that represents their support staff.

And they, as support staff, qualify for a portion of that SB 231 money.

The District hasn't received that money.

It still needs to apply to it and get approval by the interim finance committee.

But the District estimates that they'll get between 170 to 180 million dollars for both teachers and support staff pay raises.

But what the District is saying is that this money is one time.

There's no guarantee that the legislature will renew this money again, so they're trying to be cautious about it.

And by saying that any raises or bonuses that can come out of that fund, whatever amount that is, should be treated as temporary raises.

So they won't be added permanently, you know, you'll be told in two years that if that money runs out, that's the end of that bonus money.

If the legislature renews it, then we can use it again.

But at this time, the District and other districts across the state don't feel safe telling teachers and support staff, this will be part of your permanent salary that you can expect going forward.

-I'm glad you brought up other school districts, because they have access to this matching fund too.

How are they responding to this situation?

-From the districts we talked to, everyone's taking this approach.

They all have with their bargaining units that they've already agreed with, included language in their contracts, that says, This money will be sunsetted.

It's separate from the other raises that we're already giving you.

This will be treated more like a bonus, and we should just wait and see what happens with the legislature.

Lawmakers have countered back, and they've said, you know, everything that we budget for K through 12 education, all the funding that we give, you shouldn't expect that to come every year.

The situation can change for the state.

We could be in a recession.

The political will of the legislature could change.

So no one should necessarily expect that even though we've already appropriated X amount of dollars for K through 12 education that that money will continue into the next biennium.

-So lawmakers are saying give the raises even though we don't know what will be done two years from now at the legislative session.

-Exactly.

-Rocio, as a K through 12 CCSD student, you went kindergarten through 12th grade, how does all this make you feel?

-Well, I think more than anything, I feel like parents, they want to see that their students succeed.

And a part of that is having a qualified, licensed teacher in your classrooms.

We all know that the CCSD, the state, and all across the country, there is a struggle of teacher shortages.

And so I think parents, you know, they want their best for their kids, they want to see their kids succeed, and teachers being in the classrooms are a part of that.

So understandably, there's probably going to be a lot of support for teachers and also a lot of concerns about what's gonna happen.

Will this lead to a strike or lead to just smaller interruptions of before and after school activities, which one can argue are part of the educational experience for students?

And they're just as essential as the things you learn on your day-to-day, your math, reading, writing classes.

Yeah.

A lot of parents depend on those teachers being there before and after school as well.

Rocio Hernandez of The Nevada Independent, thank you for joining Nevada Week.

-It was great to be here.

-Nevada's state treasurer says his office has made the state a record amount of money off investments.

So where will that money go?

It's one of several questions I have for the treasurer who joins us now.

Zach Conine, welcome back to Nevada Week.

(Zach Conine) Thanks for having me.

Happy to be here and happy to talk about great news.

-Fiscal year 2023, you say your office made more than $214 million in returns on investments, more than three times the highest amount ever made in one year.

How did you do it?

-Well, it's a combination of things.

It's been a great market for things we invest in.

Of course, the state treasury at its core is responsible for making sure we don't lose money as a state.

That's taxpayer money.

It's not ours, and so we're careful with it.

But in this market and with as good as a job of our team has done, we were able to bring in more than $214 million, which is crazy for state investments, but we're really happy to have it because it'll go to great places.

-Well, and this market is unique in that interest rates are really high.

But that benefits you how?

-So mostly we invest in fixed income.

So we are buying treasuries and agencies, other pieces of paper from the federal government and from agencies, and they pay us interest for that.

So when interest rates rise, they're actually paying more for those investments than they were in the past.

So that plus a combination of good work on our team to allow us to pick the right ones with the right duration, and the right yield put us in a place where we've hit record returns.

-Is this something that people watching this show can learn from as far as how they can be investing right now?

-Well, certainly if you have a team of investment professionals like we do.

I think between myself and the team, we've been doing it for about 100 years.

So we encourage anybody to do it.

But the most important thing when it comes to investments is, of course, to save money.

So if you paid off your credit cards and don't have any debt and are able to put a little money away for the future, whether it's for retirement or for one of our fantastic college savings programs, there's an opportunity there to plan for what's coming next.

-What I'm getting at is that, you know, interest rates for mortgage, about 7% right now.

That's not great.

That's hurtful, but that leads to higher returns on savings accounts.

And so that's where maybe people want to get some money into.

-Yeah, absolutely.

If you can put money into a savings account, that savings account should be, as of today, paying a little bit over 5%.

If you're not getting that, you should talk to your bank or move to another one.

But the state has the same balance.

So we issue debt to pay for things like schools, roads, bridges, and whatnot, and that debt office is right across the hall from the investment office.

So usually when the investment office is happy, the debt office is sad.

And vice versa.

But our goal is to make sure we create as much opportunity as potential for Nevadans.

When there is an opportunity in the investment world, we're going to take it.

-Okay, so how will the money be spent?

-So that money gets distributed out to agencies to do the sorts of work they are already doing, which means more money for mental health, more money for education, more money for affordable housing, more money for veteran services, more money for WIC and SNAP benefits, more money for all the great work the State does.

And that's more money that can come into those programs without having to raise taxes at all, without having to touch sales tax, without taking more at the pump.

Because we know Nevada families are hurting.

It is expensive to live right now.

If we are able to do a better job in what we do, we can relieve some of the pressure to take more money out of folks' pockets.

-Does that money go into the rainy-day fund and then it is allocated at some point?

How does it work?

-It goes right into those agencies, and they can use it.

It's already in those agencies.

We distribute on a quarterly basis.

Our last quarter was pretty good, better than some of the work in past years.

So we distributed it.

It's in those agencies.

It's already at work for Nevadans.

And eventually, if they don't spend that money, it will roll over into the rainy-day fund, which as of today is at its highest level in state history.

We're actually about the 10th most secure state from rainy-day fund savings in the country.

-I guess I'm just confused on when those decisions were made as to where the money would go.

-So the money follows decisions that were already made.

So it basically pluses up in proportion.

So if the state budget, which is a bit more than $5 billion, before spending X on education and half X on veteran services, then X of the interest returns, would go to education and half X would go to veteran services.

So it's formulaic.

It kind of follows the money proportionately to the size of the agency.

-Okay.

If you could choose where that money would go, where would you argue it's needed most right now?

-Well, I mean, we have so many needs as a state.

And we have-- the good thing is I don't need to come up with a list of ideas of how to spend that money, because Nevadans have already done that.

About a year and a half ago, we did a listening tour.

We did 123 meetings over 80 days.

We met with about 40,000 Nevadans and got their feedback on how we should spend COVID money coming in through ARPA and what we should be thinking about from a state.

Those things were obvious, right?

They were mental health services, additional doctors, additional teachers, paying teachers more, making sure that we could build more affordable housing, making sure that our social safety nets, things like the unemployment system, actually work the way they're supposed to.

So we think the best thing to do with the results of smart investments is to make more smart investments and to build the state that Nevadans deserve to live in.

-Some of those needs we're going to be talking about.

But first, the state is in good financial state, but that necessarily doesn't reflect on the state's economy, right?

-Yeah.

They're different things.

The state is in the strongest financial shape it's been in since inception.

We're in exceptionally good financial shape, which is important, because no matter what happens next, we need to make sure the state is protected so it can continue to provide those services.

We saw the cuts we needed to make during the Great Recession.

We saw types of cuts we needed to make during the pandemic.

Those were hard decisions, and they were hurtful to Nevadans.

They were the right decisions, but it was really hard to get through that.

Because of our financial position, we will be in a better place if we end up in a recession.

Will we be in a recession?

I have absolutely no idea.

Nobody does.

Our job is to be as prepared as possible for anything that can happen.

And because of the state's financial position, we are.

-You may not have any idea, but do you have an opinion on whether we're headed for a recession?

-I have a lot of opinions.

I think when we look at the rate of consumer spending and the consumer debt out there, it's concerning to me.

When we look at the difficulty for generations to be able to buy a home, as you mentioned earlier, with interest rates and just the cost of housing, in general, we know that's one of the biggest ways to create generational wealth.

And if we can't create generational wealth, it's hard to continue building the society we all deserve to live in.

And so our focus is on reducing those barriers, building more affordable housing, making sure that when individuals borrow money they're doing it in a way that is as responsible as possible.

You know, we have a student loan ombudsperson in our office who works just with borrowers of college loans, who has helped teachers and others get rid of more than $100,000 per loan of these loans through public service loan forgiveness.

And when they do that work, that family is in a better place to start creating generational wealth.

That's our goal.

-What about the unemployment rate?

Nevada has the highest in the country at 5.3% in July, compared to 3.5% nationally.

-When we look at the number of jobs that Nevada has created over the past year, it is remarkable.

We have had remarkable recovery.

That doesn't mean we have people who aren't out of work now, and they need to be placed.

In many situations, there are jobs available and there are individuals who want to work, but the individual skill set does not fit into those jobs.

We've got to work on retraining.

We've got to work on connecting the jobs with the individuals.

-Is that something your office does?

-We tried to fund it.

Our office, that $214 million, the $337 million in investment returns we've made since I became treasurer, which happens to be a record, that's all money that can be used to support those programs.

What we worry about is how we pay for it.

So during the last legislative session, we worked on two bills, one that would create a fund to help teachers that start in CCSD.

Just like my daughter over there.

If she wants to be a teacher, there's going to be a fund there so as she grows up, she can start taking classes in high school, move from high school to college directly into a program.

And if she stays and teaches in Nevada, she isn't going to have a single dollar of student loans.

We did the same program for medical professionals using unclaimed property dollars we knew we couldn't return, $2.5 million dollars a year, the first program of its type with permanent funding, to go and help put doctors and nurses and mental health care professionals into the communities where they need them most.

We can help pay for this thing.

By paying for it, we can create a pipeline.

By creating a pipeline, hopefully in the long term, we can get those individuals here.

-How do you get the word out about that past program you just talked about?

-Well, the great thing about all of our student loan programs-- prepaid tuition is a great example of this.

On our 25th year of prepaid tuition-- we will be hitting you up to get a contract later and every time I see you --that program, everyone who uses it is an acolyte of that program.

They are our best commercials, people who have used it and found that it's such a great way to save money.

And that's the same with all of our programs.

When we start a program like that, we try to get the word out through everybody we can.

But through programs like this, the people who use it then go and spend as much time as they can talking about it, because they're all so good.

-And you're talking about the baby that I just had.

-I am.

-So when is it that I can register?

-Now.

-Now?

Already?

-From the hospital.

We would try to go into the hospital and suggest, but most new parents are busy with other things at the beginning, so we give them a couple weeks before we harass them.

But yes, you can start a prepaid tuition contract when the child is born.

-And by the time he graduates high school?

-By the time he graduates high school, he will have his college at UNR or UNLV paid for.

And if he chooses to go somewhere else-- Harvard, not a great choice; Cornell, great choice.

If he goes to some other school, we'll pay for the value of UNR or UNLV at that time.

So we have families who have children right now going to college who bought those programs when they were young, when they were your son's age, who have saved $20,000 on college because they made that investment early.

-How does it work?

Is it a monthly payment that you're making to this fund?

-We are flexible.

You can make a one-time payment, you can pay monthly, you can pay monthly for a shorter period of time, or you can pay monthly every month between now and when that child turns 18.

We have tons of different plans.

-You brought your nine-year-old daughter in today.

-I did.

-She's sitting off set, and she's a beneficiary of this program?

-Look.

In the treasury, we believe very strongly that we should walk the walk and talk the talk.

And so Ruby has a prepaid tuition plan.

Her brothers, Teddy and Ford, have prepaid tuition plans.

And we can move them between children.

So Ruby has a four-year plan.

If she doesn't use it all because of scholarships-- because you're gonna get scholarships-- then she's able to move that to her brothers.

One of her brothers might join the circus.

If he joins a circus and the other one doesn't, then they can use those other two years.

They're exceptionally flexible for families.

We think that's really important.

-Hey, joining the circus is a real thing in Las Vegas.

-Absolutely, yes.

-I want to talk about affordable housing.

We had you on about a year ago, we talked about the designation of $500 million in ARPA funds for the creation of about 2,500 affordable housing units.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition says that Nevada lacks about 84,000 units for extremely low-income renters.

So what else is being done to fill that need?

-So we're making smart investments.

And we're making those investments in a way that Nevada hasn't done in the past.

We're bringing in partners and money from outside the state.

We're attracting pension capital and investment capital to come build.

Through the Nevada State Infrastructure Bank, which we sort of recreated a few years back-- I chair it; it's in our office-- we are going to invest about $20 million into affordable housing, which is important.

But that $20 million is going to be matched 9 to 1 by an investor coming in from out of the state because we've created a vehicle for them to do it.

We're also bringing in other partners.

We have some amazing partners who build affordable housing in Southern Nevada, but there's only so much affordable housing that can be built with companies here.

So we're bringing new companies from out of the state to bring their ideas in order to build as much housing as humanly possible, because that is the solution to the affordable housing crisis.

The most effective solution is to build more, to build up, to build it in different places, but places that are attached to services and not just in Southern Nevada.

We are focused on Northern Nevada.

We're focused on rural Nevada.

We need to make sure everyone has a place to live.

Housing is a human right, and it is something where we can literally throw money at the problem effectively.

And so we should.

-That 20 million, which you say will be matched, can you estimate how many units that will create?

-About 6,000 by the time we're done.

-It's hard when you know that 84,000 is what the goal is.

-Yeah.

And I think in government, we should always make sure not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

There is no plan to get 80,000 units up in one year.

But if we get 6,000 units up in one year and 10,000 the next and 20,000 the year after that, we will continue to do better and continue to chip away at this problem.

-And the 6,000 units, when would they be available would you estimate?

-Oh, about 12 to 18 months from today.

-Okay.

The $380 million in public funding that the State approved for the construction of an A's baseball stadium on the Las Vegas Strip, some argue that could be spent on housing, education, mental health.

Why did you support giving that money to an underperforming baseball team whose owner is already a billionaire?

-We didn't give the money to an underperforming baseball team.

We gave the money to build an asset that will be owned by the state of Nevada, owned by the county.

We have a public asset like Raiders Stadium.

And I should mention all the projections for Raiders Stadium were grossly undervalued.

We've been doing exceptionally well there.

And we've created an asset that has brought all sorts of interesting things to town, including Taylor Swift, who brought in millions of dollars to our economy.

-Your favorite example.

-Well, it's her favorite example.

We brought in these shows that we wouldn't have been able to bring before.

The lifeblood of Southern Nevada, as we try to diversify, is tourism.

So when we're able to put more into the top of that, we know that Southern Nevada is the world's best mousetrap for extracting money out of willing adults who come to town.

We should make sure we have as many of those willing adults as possible.

Now, we also did --and this is where I came in-- structured that deal in such a way that Nevada was protected.

Unlike the Raiders deal, the state of Nevada actually gets paid back if the stadium performs.

The Raiders deal, it just stays within the stadium.

We made sure that no public money would go in until Mr. Fisher and the rest of that team has invested and committed more than a billion dollars in building the stadium.

So we made sure Nevada was protected in this.

I think there's an absolutely reasonable argument to say the State should or shouldn't be involved in economic development.

But if we are going to be involved in economic development, and I think we should, those deals need to be as good as possible for Nevadans.

This deal is.

-How confident are you in John Fisher, the owner of the A's, ability to come up with that money?

-We are confident in John Fisher's ability to come up with that money.

We're also confident we structured a deal that if he doesn't, it doesn't cost us anything.

All we've done is waste time talking about it.

-On the note of education, the money that the legislature approved for teacher raises, the Clark County School District right now is arguing, hey, that's one-time money that in a couple years we don't know if the legislature is going to approve that again.

So how are we supposed to fund these raises, not knowing if we'll have the money to fund them after the two years is up?

Did you support that bill, and do you understand that argument from a financial solvency standpoint?

-I did support that bill.

I think we need to pay teachers more.

I think it's frustrating that every time we try to pay teachers more, there's this back and forth which really doesn't help the teachers and really doesn't help the kids.

I've got three kids in the Clark County School District.

Only two today, but I have three kids in the Clark County School District, and they are not benefited by this argument.

They're not benefited by this back and forth.

We need to get that money in the classrooms.

The reason why is we understand the legislature did it that way because in past when dollars have gone to the school district, they haven't made it to the classroom.

And so they wanted to do something different so those dollars made it to the teachers that they were supposed to go to.

Every budget the State of Nevada passes is a two-year budget, every single one.

And we've seen there have been times we had to make cuts because of recession or COVID or anything else.

That money is just as available for raises as any other money that comes out of the state of Nevada.

And so I would hope that they can find a solution where that money can get into teachers' pockets and, frankly, teachers can get back to doing the thing they should be doing and that they're great at, teaching our kids.

-But from a financial standpoint, you're not supposed to spend money you don't have.

So how can you commit to a raise longer than two years when you've only been given money for two years?

-You're only ever given money for two years.

That's the nature of our budget.

Our budget is a two-year budget because we don't know what's going to happen in two years.

We should have a budget every year, as opposed to every two years, but that's specific to Nevada's situation.

Because we have a two-year budget, you make plans on a two-year thing.

And you understand that the legislature and teachers and the political process is going to make sure that teachers are protected if there is some sort of other downturn.

But that money and the other money are the same money when it comes to a two-year solvency thing.

-There's so much more we could talk about, but we have run out of time.

State Treasurer Zach Conine, thank you for joining Nevada Week.

And thank you for watching.

For any of the resources discussed on this show, please go to our website, vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek.

And I'll see you next week on Nevada Week.

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