MINUTES OF THE
SENATE COMMITTEE ON FINANCE
Sixty-seventh Session
March 16, 1993
The Senate Committee on Finance was called to order by Chairman William J. Raggio, at 8:04 a.m., on Tuesday, March 16, 1993, in Room 223 of the Legislative Building, Carson City, Nevada. Exhibit A is the Meeting Agenda. Exhibit B is the Attendance Roster.
COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT:
Senator William J. Raggio, Chairman
Senator Raymond D. Rawson, Vice Chairman
Senator Lawrence E. Jacobsen
Senator Bob Coffin
Senator Diana M. Glomb
Senator William R. O'Donnell
Senator Matthew Q. Callister
GUEST LEGISLATORS PRESENT:
Senator Joseph (Joe) M. Neal, Jr.
STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT:
Daniel G. Miles, Fiscal Analyst
Robert Guernsey, Principal Deputy Fiscal Analyst
Joan McConnell, Committee Secretary
OTHERS PRESENT:
William A. Bible, Chairman, State Gaming Control Board
Judy Matteucci, Director, Department of Administration
Randy Day, Commissioner, Office of the Nevada Commissioner for Veteran Affairs, Reno
Ron Sparks II, Management Analyst, Budget Division, Department of Administration
Richard Rohr, Deputy Commissioner, Office of the Nevada Deputy Commissioner for Veteran Affairs, Las Vegas
Kathie Milone-Levenberg, Member, Nevada Veterans' Advisory Commission
Will Keating, Executive Officer, Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS)
George Pyne, Operations Officer, Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS)
Ellen Townsend, Principal Budget Analyst, Department of Administration
Dr. Robert M. Daugherty, Jr., Dean, School of Medicine, University of Nevada, Reno
Gaming Control Board - Page 320
Investigation Fund - Page 329
William A. Bible, Chairman, State Gaming Control Board, distributed an organizational chart of the Gaming Control Board and a con-solidated budget (Exhibit C) and began testimony on the above two budgets. He stated there are currently about 20 vacancies within the board. Some employees were lost to other areas where there now is legalized gaming, as well as a number of individuals to the industry within the State of Nevada. No salary increases last year, and the current budget proposal not including salary increases for the next two years of the biennium, have had an effect upon morale within the board.
Senator Callister stated a concern about the loss of regulatory people to other regulatory bodies outside the State of Nevada and wondered about their motivation.
Mr. Bible felt salary increases had a great deal to do with the loss of regulatory employees, in addition to physical movement to a new and possibly interesting area.
Senator Raggio suggested with the proliferation of gaming throughout the country, and the advent of regulatory agencies in other jurisdictions, it is going to be increasingly difficult to keep people. A situation may develop where salaries will never be able to be matched.
Mr. Bible called attention to Agency Transfers, under Resources on page 320, noting there is a substantial increase from Agency Request ($1,801,525) to Governor Recommends ($2,522,801), which includes charges for investigation activities. Man-hour rates are currently charged at $30 an hour of agent time for regular work, and $25 an hour for travel activities involved as part of the investigation.
This budget proposes an increase in the fee levels from $30 to $40 for regular activities and $25 to $35 for travel time, or $10 an hour increase. The increase was based on surveys of practices in other jurisdictions. New Jersey has a similar charge system. Their current rate is $72 an hour. Mississippi is charging $45 an hour. Colorado is charging $37 an hour. In Iowa the rate is about $19 an hour, but the agency itself is supported by an assessment system back to the riverboat operations.
Also, in the Expenditure area, under operational expenses, the Governor is recommending the addition of $20,000 in each year of the biennium from the state General Fund for the board and commission to assume the responsibilities of the Nevada Racing Commission, which is part of the Governor's reorganization package.
Senator Raggio suggested it might be wiser to leave the responsibilities of the Nevada Racing Commission where it is.
Mr. Bible said, "I believe what led them to this conclusion was the financial positions other racing commissions had, which was the inability to live within their budgeted resources."
Judy Matteucci, Director, Department of Administration, stated:
The racing commission is very difficult to communicate with. The analyst has attempted to discuss the issue and explain the recommendation. I don't know if they have responded one way or other. Mr. Bible is correct. Our concern is that they are simply unable to live within their resources. This has been an ongoing and chronic problem for many years.
Mr. Bible said the item Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is budgeted to accommodate requirements in terms of signage and accommodations for individuals with handicaps. The budget item OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) maintenance requirement is to allow the Gaming Control Board, particularly the Enforcement Division, to accommodate standards for employees that may come into contact with communicable diseases, particularly HIV and hepatitis.
Regarding Regulation 6-A on page 324, Mr. Bible pointed out a change made in 1988 by the federal Department of Treasury published rules making the reporting requirements more stringent. At that time the State of Nevada took the position that by implication those rules would affect our exemption. The Internal Revenue Service took the position they do not specifically affect our exemption, because the state did have an exemption; however the Internal Revenue Service was performing a similar function at that time in New Jersey and in Puerto Rico.
The regulations were never published in final form until last week, in the Federal Register. The regulations were as stringent as originally proposed, with some changes in terms of threshold reporting requirements, for instance, identifying patrons from a $10,000 level to a lower level of $3,000. Changes were made in terms of reporting transactions as they flow through the casino, by
using licensees' computerized records routinely used for player tracking activities. By implication, these particular regulations will have an impact on the exemption previously obtained from the federal government. There could be some additional staff required to monitor those activities.
Senator Raggio asked Mr. Bible to inform the committee on the new slot-tax proposal.
Mr. Bible commented:
I talked briefly about it when I discussed revenues with the joint committees at the beginning of the session. The last legislature considered a proposal by the administration to implement a percentage fee on slot-route operators. The proposal had some controversy attached to it.
The legislature wanted to establish some baseline data and appropriated $200,000 to the board to conduct a comprehensive study for the financial help of the slot-route industry, and to make, if deemed appropriate, recommendations in the taxation area...A number of audits were conducted...The study has been published, and provided to members of the legislature. It includes a series of recommendations.
The administration, in their evaluation, selected alternative number 3, which would provide a parity in taxation between the nonrestricted and restricted locations...Restricted location is a slots-only operation that operates up to 15 slot machines. They currently are taxed on a flat-fee basis, both annually and quarterly, graduated between $45 and $90 per quarter, payable in advance. The recommendation calls for those locations to be placed on a percentage-fee basis that would be substantially equivalent to the percentage-fee taxation that is placed upon nonrestricted licensees, and that the restricted slot fees be reduced from the $45/$90 to $20 per quarter, which is the same taxation environment that exists at nonrestricted locations.
Senator Raggio asked, "What is plugged in this budget for the potential from slot tax?"
Ms. Matteucci replied the net impact is about $3.3 million per year in additional income.
Senator Raggio asked, "Is that a reasonable amount, based upon your analysis?"
Mr. Bible said, "In terms of the data we collected, that projection is supportable by the data we have available."
Senator Rawson inquired about item number 5 under Performance Indicators on page 325.
Mr. Bible stated the Performance Indicators are going in a positive direction.
Regarding the Performance Indicators in the final group on page 326, Mr. Bible stated the numbers are actually increasing. It is taking longer to process both restricted and nonrestricted applications because of the reductions in staff.
Senator Rawson questioned the "radical" change, under Electronic Services, number 5, in machines tested in the field between the actual and projected for 1993.
Mr. Bible commented:
What that represents is the effect of the Devised Integrity program, which the legislature budgeted in 1991...You gave us three teams of three individuals each to perform compliance activities throughout the State of Nevada...We lost one of the teams through attrition and are currently operating two teams....What you're seeing is those teams coming on board, and the compliance activities increase. They were budgeted...to phase in over the biennium.
Senator Rawson asked Mr. Bible to take a look at the performance criteria from his viewpoint and submit his input to the committee as they refine the indicators.
Senator Raggio asked, "On page 327, the number of publicly traded corporation (PTC) applications seems unusually high. Are you including all individual applications in connection with a publicly traded corporation filing?"
Mr. Bible agreed the number is high and will supply a review of the figure.
Senator Raggio asked if Mr. Bible had an occasion to revisit his revenue projections, which had appeared to be somewhat higher than the revenue projections from fiscal staff.
Mr. Bible stated:
We've had a couple more months of collection experience...The figures for both the months of December and January were heavily influenced by weather factors in northern Nevada. The figures we released last week indicate a statewide win of about 9 percent. Your staff will probably relate to you that the collection itself was like a 7 percent negative, and there were a number of factors that explained that particular decrease in the collection figure.
One is that during the collection process we collected some of the monies that were due at the end of February and actually got deposited in the month of March, about $700,000.. ..The win figure included a great deal of activity in terms of credit issuance that gets reported as wins and may not show up in the clutch until subsequent months.
Mr. Bible suggested there may be some expansion of legalized gaming in adjoining states that could have a negative effect on the State of Nevada.
Senator Coffin asked, "Is it really worth it for us to keep the tax rate down if other [states] are charging a higher tax?"
Mr. Bible said the data is available and it can be updated...During a comparison study of the tax structure and regulatory burden between New Jersey and Nevada, the conclusion was because of the more favorable tax climate in the State of Nevada the industry in Nevada was able to offer higher paybacks, particularly in slot machines, in terms of the patron.
Senator Jacobsen stated his information shows the Gaming Policy Committee is inactive, and suggested, with proliferation in Indian gaming, the committee should be very active. He added, "If it isn't active we might as well dispose of it."
Mr. Bible said:
That particular question was addressed by the interim study committee that was chaired by Senator Titus. Her recommendation was to reformulate that particular policy committee and require they meet at least quarterly. That particular bill, I believe, is scheduled to be heard tomorrow.
Veterans Affairs - Page 1455
Randy Day, Commissioner, Office of the Nevada Commissioner for Veteran Affairs, Reno, distributed a Report of Burials for Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemeteries in Boulder City and Fernley (Exhibit D). He stated:
We are charged with assisting veterans and their families with securing benefits, mainly from the federal govern-ment. Should they be denied, we help them with their appeal. We also operate a guardianship program. Currently we have approximately 50 wards declared incompetent by the court. We manage their funds, currently to the tune of approximately $1.7 to $1.8 million. We also operate the two veteran cemeteries in the state, one in Boulder City and one in Fernley. At those cemeteries, we are presently in phase two expansion ...with the combination of federal funds and some state monies we had in reserve.
The budget you have in front of you is what we have to accomplish those tasks.
Mr. Day stated activities would be expanded in both Las Vegas and Reno offices in securing benefits, and will have significant increases at the cemetery facilities, both in burials and maintenance. Eight acres are being added to the southern facility and about four acres to the northern facility. In trying to offset the General Fund allocation to enhance income, the burial fee for the spouse has been increased from $150 to $250, which is still well below industry standards. Veterans, of course, will not be charged. The agency receives $150 from the federal government for veteran burial. There is a proposal currently being drawn to charge the wards a fee of 5 percent for the administration of the program, which is standard across the country.
Senator Raggio asked if inmate help is being utilized for the cemeteries.
Mr. Day replied:
We are getting 2 to 3 days [inmate help] at the Fernley site from Silver Springs Camp. In the south we are getting one day, and occasionally an extra day. We have one groundskeeper and one superintendent in each facility. Of real concern here would naturally be the closing of these camps. We would have great difficulty operating the facilities, especially in the south, without the help of the inmates.
Ms. Matteucci commented, "Silver Springs is women's [camp] and it is not being closed, and the Indian Springs Camp is not being closed."
Senator Raggio asked, "Does this budget facilitate all of the requirements of your office?"
Mr. Day stated, "We have to utilize our resources very carefully, including scheduling vacations, time off. At times it requires myself and others of the agency to assist at the cemeteries. We'll survive."
Senator Raggio queried, "What happens to the advisory committee on the cemeteries?"
Mr. Day responded, "My understanding is that the cemetery advisory commission would be eliminated, and that function would come under the advisory commission."
Ron Sparks II, Management Analyst, Budget Division, Department of Administration, stated, "No, they are not. All three boards [two cemetery committees and the advisory committee] will still be separate."
Senator Raggio asked if the budget accommodates the anticipated meetings of all three boards, and asked, "Are they funded?"
Mr. Sparks responded, "Yes, they are."
Senator Coffin asked, regarding the 5 percent increase in the fee,
"What would the 5 percent fee do to the earnings on the money in the fund?"
Mr. Day replied:
The fee would be levied against the annual income. It would be a total of the income received in that year, not on existing funds. Many of the wards have very sizable accounts. At present we're shifting to a triple-A-bond investment that is yielding 6 percent, tax free.
Senator Jacobsen stated the cemeteries cannot survive without the honor camps' assistance.
Richard Rohr, Deputy Commissioner, Office of the Nevada Deputy Commissioner for Veteran Affairs, Las Vegas, commented the committee should be aware of how many burials are going on in southern Nevada with the reduced staff. There are 48 state cemeteries in the United States, two in Nevada and Maryland has five. The southern Nevada cemetery ranks third in Fiscal Year 92 in the number of burials. In 1992, 601 veterans, spouses and children were buried in southern Nevada with one groundskeeper and one superintendent. Utah buried 101 with the same staff. New Jersey buried 1,195 with 8 administrative staff and 12 grounds-keepers.
Kathie Milone-Levenberg, Member, Nevada Veterans' Advisory Commission, distributed three letters to the Governor (Exhibits E, F and G) and read them aloud to the committee.
Senator Raggio corrected Ms. Levenberg on the figure in Exhibit G,
"The budget indicates $687,000 for Fiscal Year 94, and $702,000 for Fiscal Year 95. There are some enhancements there."
Ms. Milone-Levenberg agreed there was an error on Exhibit G.
Senator Raggio invited Ms. Matteucci's response, within a week, to Exhibits E, F and G, when she has a chance to review them, to the committee and the commission.
Public Employees Retirement System - Page 1647
Will Keating, Executive Officer, Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS), distributed revised budget pages (Exhibit H. Original is on file in the Research Library.), and discussion ensued.
George Pyne, Operations Officer, Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS), stated:
Back in August when we submitted our original budget, we felt it included some increases that were justified. When we read in December that even the legislature had decided to hold expenditures to current levels, the retirement board felt that it, too, should adhere to essentially those same guidelines. Therefore, the board at its January meeting voted to amend the original budget request to basically target for our expenditures our 1992 actual expenditures, which is the reason you have the handout [Exhibit H].
Ellen Townsend, Principal Budget Analyst, Department of Administration, stated she had been provided a copy of the revised budget pages (Exhibit H), and the Governor's recommendations appear for display purposes only.
Mr. Pyne commented, "Despite the proposed cuts in our budget, we still feel we can conduct business as usual."
Senator Raggio asked how PERS compares nationally.
Mr. Keating stated:
Nationally we compare very favorably. There are systems out there who are fully funded, possibly a little bit better funded. Even though we are not funded, the contribution rates we have in place are sufficient to fully fund this system by the year 2024, when we are supposed to be fully funded. We are on schedule.
Senator Raggio asked, "Presently what are the rates for employer- pay and for employee/employer?"
Mr. Keating replied:
For regular members the employer-pay contribution rate actually in effect at the moment is 18.47 percent. The actuarial required amount is 18.22 percent, or .25 percent below the actual contribution rates we have in place today. For police and firemen, they have an actuarial contribution rate of about 27.5 percent, approximately. They are presently at 26 percent, going to 27 percent as of July 1, and then eventually the other half the following July 1.
Senator Coffin had a question on earnings projections:
There had been a feeler from budget as to whether or not you could sustain higher earnings, therefore reducing the General Fund contribution to the retirement fund....It looks like there is an increase over the agency's projection. Is that true, and if so how much?
Mr. Keating replied, "Not to my knowledge. We assume, over the long-term future, that we will realize a premium in the rate of return in our investment program of 3 percentage points over the rate of inflation."
Senator O'Donnell arrived at 9:30 a.m.
Senator Raggio called a 5-minute recess at 9:40 a.m. to wait for Senator Neal's appearance to testify on Senate Bill (S.B.) 148. The meeting reconvened at 9:45 a.m.
Senator Raggio opened the hearing on S.B. 148.
SENATE BILL 148: Directs state controller to withhold portion of certain appropriation to University of Nevada school of medical sciences unless proof is received showing increased admittance of minority students.
Senator Joseph (Joe) M. Neal, Jr. distributed data reflecting the number of minority students accepted to the school of medical sciences, University of Nevada, Reno and a copy of an article from the university newspaper the Sagebrush, dated Friday, October 23, 1992 (Exhibit I. Original is on file in the Research Library.). Discussion ensued.
Senator Neal stated:
During the history of the medical school in Reno there have been 813 students accepted and only two black applicants. This medical school has engaged in what I believe is systematic exclusion of black students from its program....
Senator Neal referred to the last page of Exhibit I, Number of In-State Minorities Applied. He also spoke of standards:
Is it the GPA [Grade Point Average]? We think so, but we're not too sure...What we found in looking at the GPA, of all of the students that were admitted some GPAs descended from a 4.0 down to 2.2. Does the 2.2 GPA become the standard for admission?
Senator Raggio mentioned that students are not accepted totally on their GPA, but also on the results of their MCAT (Medical College Aptitude Test).
Senator Neal was unaware of the MCAT. He stated he did know there is a panel of 17 members called a screening committee who interview the students. The information contained in Exhibit I was furnished to the Research Division of the Legislative Counsel Bureau at Senator Neal's request. Senator Neal referred to page 8 of Exhibit I, which lists the black students who applied to the medical school in 1991 and 1992 but were not accepted. The GPAs ranged from 2.20 to 3.27. Senator Neal wondered why the black applicants with the 3.27 and 3.22 GPAs were not accepted.
Senator Neal said he was prepared, if necessary, to file a report with the attorney general of the United States unless the
university's medical school changes its policy of acceptance of minorities.
Senator Rawson stated, although he did not know all that is used in the selection process, he does know MCAT is one of the criteria. He said he desired to get all of the MCAT scores alongside of the GPAs. He asked Senator Neal how a better procedure could be developed than what is currently being used to try and encourage young black people to go into the program.
Senator Neal felt some of the questions on the MCAT were irrelevant to qualify to train as a doctor. He added there is only one black on the admissions committee, and black applicants are not sent to him to be interviewed.
Senator Rawson stated he had two sons himself, who had applied to the medical school, had good GPAs, and were not accepted. There has to be other criteria considered for acceptance. He did not accept the insinuation that the school is dishonest in any way.
Senator Neal suggested having a model program such as they have at Washington University Medical School in St. Louis, the medical school in Carbondale, Illinois, a preparatory training for medical school.
Senator Rawson suggested the problem is something we can solve within the State of Nevada, without it being necessary to go to the attorney general of the United States.
Senator Callister found most disturbing the article from the Sagebrush in (Exhibit I).
Senator Raggio asked if there was anyone to testify for or against S.B. 148.
Dr. Robert M. Daugherty, Jr., Dean, School of Medicine, University of Nevada, Reno, testified in opposition to S.B. 148:
Passage of S.B. 148 would do much harm to those we want to help the most, our students. A 10 percent reduction in the school state appropriation, if we do not increase by at least 50 percent the number of students admitted to the school in any year who are underrepresented minorities, would seriously hurt those same students. Those minorities who are admitted would then be assured of an inferior medical education.
For example assume we do admit, as we most often do, a number of underrepresented minorities, but the number does not reach 50 percent of the students admitted, we lose up to $1 million of our state appropriation, which would directly have benefitted those students that we admitted.
I appreciate Senator Neal's frustration. We, too, have been frustrated over the years because we haven't been able to increase our pool of qualified minority students applying to our medical school. Please be reminded that underrepresented minorities in medicine are Black, Hispanic and Native Americans. These three minority groups are underrepresented in the profession and in our nation's medical schools. This problem is recognized as a national problem and is the agenda to be solved in this decade by all schools under the guidance of the association of medical colleges that we all belong to.
Out of the 15,000 students admitted to school each year there are about 1,500 underrepresented minorities. The goal, as a nation, by the year 2000 is to double that number admitted each year, to have 3,000 by 2000. Our problem has been a lack of minority applicants. Since 1986 we have had 866 in-state applicants. Only 55 of those 866 were minorities. That's 7 percent of our applicants are underrepresented minorities, as compared to 22 percent of our state's population being under-represented minorities.
The other problem we have is often in accepting one of these minorities to our school they are recruited away by other schools...Private schools are very good at recruiting top minority students away. Fifty-eight percent of the minorities that we offer acceptances to go someplace else. Over 80 percent of the rest of the applicants come to our school and are offered a position.
Senator Raggio asked if there is a record of underrepresented minorities who have made applications, who have been recruited away, who otherwise would have been accepted? "That doesn't seem to appear in these statistics we have [Exhibit I]"
Dr. Daugherty replied, "That particular question was not asked, but yes, we do have that information." He offered to provide the information to the committee, per Senator Raggio's request.
Dr. Daugherty added:
One of the problems is that we don't have the scholarship dollars to compete with some of the larger, particularly private, medical schools who recruit top minority students. We do have available now two scholarships which will pay the full tuition for a minority student that had been given to the school by the alumni of our school. One was given to us last year, and one this year.
We decided 2 years ago to put our emphasis on recruitment as suggested by Senator Callister. As we've looked across the country, we don't find successful recruitment programs. As we have talked to the Association of American Medical Colleges about ideas that we have, they said they would be interested to know if they work because other schools have not been successful.
The programs described by Senator Neal are, I believe, remedial programs for pre-med students in which institutions will take students for a period of time and give them, essentially, a cram course to help increase their applicant possibility. We don't have the resources, quite frankly, to develop a whole separate curriculum for individuals prior to coming into medical school.
We had been covering the high schools of this state with presentations by our students, our faculty, and by individuals of our staff who are involved in recruitment. We decided that was not good use of our time, and therefore in the past 2 years, and particularly this year, we have attempted to encourage young minority students to see medicine as a goal and a potential profession for them by doing the following programs. We see these programs as pilot programs and we believe they will be successful.
We will institute this summer our high school minority scholars' program, which we actually started almost 10 years ago with the help of the Charles I. West Medical Society, which is the group of black physicians Senator Neal mentioned in Las Vegas. They have been very helpful to us in identifying young minorities. Now with the help of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Grant that was awarded to the university this past year, we will take 15 minority high school students to spend one week at the medical school where they will be exposed to the basic sciences into the clinical sciences.
To indicate to you one of our problems, in Reno there is one black physician. That particular physician is on our faculty. In order for us to have role models where these students can interact with them for a week, we will bring some of the physicians Senator Neal mentioned from Las Vegas up to the school. The majority of these students will come from Las Vegas.
A second program is that we have just adopted the Hug High School science program in Reno. We picked Hug High School because it has the highest minority population of any high school in Reno, and we picked it also because it's almost next door to our basic science faculty in Reno.
We have found one thing that seems to be consistent as you look at recruitment programs, and that is that mentoring is essential. In our case it will be our medical students who can identify with these young students over a period of time. Over half of our freshman class volunteered to be mentors for the Hug High School. They have gone through a training program on what a mentor is, and they have identified their students in the science program, and they have begun to interact with them. Our faculty will help their faculty design the curriculum. We will bring their faculty into the school and eventually hope we can have their faculty working with our faculty in research.
The third program that we are undertaking is to work with the Clark County School District as they have created a new school for science and math in Clark High School. This is a program designed to bring the top students from throughout Clark County who are interested in science and math to one center. It is anticipated that 40 percent of those students will be minorities. We have worked with the Clark County School system and will continue to help them put together the curriculum for that program....
We welcome any input into recruitment of minorities into the profession. It is a national problem, not peculiar to our state. It is a difficult problem, but we will not lower our standards for anyone.
Senator Raggio asked, "What are the standards in use and that are utilized by the greeting committee?"
Dr. Daugherty replied:
The admissions committee standards entail several parts to them. The GPA is important, not necessarily the most important. The other is the MCAT, which is also important. One of the things the MCAT tells you is not how good a physician someone will be, but it's a pretty good predictor of how successful you'll be in medical school. A very important part of that test is how well you do on the reading part, which is to read a paragraph or a short story and comprehend and retain. That's an important part of being a medical student because you're going to be in class 6 to 8 hours a day with a lot of information.
A third is letters of recommendation from faculty, teachers and professionals who know the individual. The fourth, which may turn out to be the most important, certainly is of significance, is the interview.
Every student we take into our school, or applies to our school from the State of Nevada has two interviews by a faculty member or a member of this committee, or by a student. At least one of the interviews will be by a member of the committee.
This year we have a total of 183 Nevadans applying for medical school. Only 24 of those are in the under-represented minority group. In 1992 we had 174 and only 21 of those were [of the underrepresented minority group].
Regarding the grant mentioned in the Sagebrush, Dr. Daugherty said:
That was a grant we wrote in collaboration with several western medical schools about 4 years ago to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. We decided after 3 years of that grant, that out of 50 students each year the most Nevadans ever in that program were 9, we simply couldn't put the resources that it took into that program, and we should be putting it into recruitment.
The program was bringing students from across the country to Nevada, then they were going back to their states and applying to medical school. It was a 6-week summer program. It was a matching grant. We had to pay faculty in the summer to teach that program and also to provide the facilities and the resources for it. We decided we would rather spend those resources on recruitment programs in Nevada....
Our general admission policy is that we will consider anyone who meets the state requirement of residence for Nevada, anyone who comes from one of the four western states without a medical school, and anyone who has a close tie to the state, such as a family tie.
Senator O'Donnell wondered if the MCAT is not taking into consideration some of the other socio-economic society-type situations that may occur in black neighborhoods.
Dr. Daugherty stated the MCAT is a standard test which has been used 30 to 35 years in this country as one of the ways to assess one's ability to complete medical school. It is a very good predictor of how one will do in the passing of the boards in order to obtain licensure.
Senator Coffin was curious to know how many applicants from Nevada are being lost to other states and what the potential pool is for recruitment. Dr. Daugherty agreed to provide the requested information.
Senator Callister requested statistics on what is occurring at other similar state medical schools in similar-size states. "What has their admission record been like over the past 20 years?" He also requested information on what in-state minority recruitment efforts would be.
Dr. Daugherty requested a brief meeting with Senator Callister to establish exactly what information he would like to have.
There being no further business before the committee, Senator Raggio adjourned the meeting at 10:45 a.m.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:
Joan McConnell,
Committee Secretary
APPROVED BY:
Senator William J. Raggio, Chairman
DATE:
??
Senate Committee on Finance
March 16, 1993
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