S2661 CSF Economist Revised Scope~2.docx

BACKGROUND

1.1. PROJECT

The Commission on School Funding (“CSF” or “Commission”) was created via legislation in 2019 and is found in statute under NRS 387.1246 et seq.

The Nevada Department of Education (NDE) has a support role/function for the CSF under NRS 387.1246(8) as amended by AB400: “The Department shall provide the Commission with meeting rooms, data processing services and administrative and clerical assistance and undertake any research, analysis, study or other work required by the Commission to carry out its duties pursuant to NRS 387.12463. […]” In the 2023 Nevada Legislative Session, Senate Bill 98 (See https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App?NELIS/REL/82nd2023/Bill/9719/) was passed and became law.

Senate Bill 98 requires the Commission to make changes to the laws governing sales and use tax and property tax to fully fund public schools in this State at an optimal level of funding.

Prospective vendors are encouraged to review the language in the Nevada Revised Statutes and the legislative history of the CSF. For ease of review, general characterization of the legal requirements for the CSF’s work that requires technical assistance detailed herein is included but is not a substitute for review of actual statutory language on the part of proposing vendors.

The selected vendor must assist the CSF if meeting its statutory duties and assist the CSF by responding to any task assigned including, but not limited to, review of additional revenue sources for the State Education Fund, the cost of education, teacher pipelines, and adjustments incorporated into the Pupil-Centered Funding Plan, and a review and revision of weights utilized by the Plan.

The selected vendor must review and revise previous reports relating to property tax and sales and use tax reforms. They must review and identify county by county impacts from the application of depreciation on improvements to real property and review and develop scenarios to determine incremental revenue production from: capping abatements at their current levels for all properties, phasing out abatements over a five-year period, immediately eliminating abatements, and eliminating abatements while also reducing tax rates to achieve a revenue neutral level of revenue and identify combined tax rate headway created through this approach. The vendor shall also review and develop scenarios brought forward by capping depreciation levels for all properties, phasing out depreciation over a five-year period, immediately removing depreciation as a factor in determine taxable value or assessed value, and for each of the above, determine the impacts upon a range of properties, i.e., residential, non-residential) to test equity.

The selected vendor must also review and develop scenarios to test the impact of changing the current assessment methodology from full cash value for land plus depreciated value for improvements to a market-based (value upon transfer of title or reassessment based upon market value as well as scenarios that consider modifications to abatements combined with modifications to depreciation. The vendor shall determine the impact of generating the targeted revenue to enhance education funding through an increase in statewide property tax rates alone (without consideration of statutory combined tax limits.

The selected vendor must also identify and review sales tax revenue foregone as a consequence of both the implicit and explicit exemptions in current force, examine the explicit exemptions to determine with have broad application versus narrow application, provide a summary of areas of trade that are currently implicitly exempted from sales tax and the volume of trade associated, and test the revenue production of discretionary exemptions under the following approaches: application of the statewide common rates, application of full rates in each county, and application of new, separate rates to the discretionary items.

The selected vendor must assist the CSF with identifying optimal combinations of the above approaches, or combination of approaches, to achieve targeted funding levels over the next biennium and over the next ten-year funding period. They must also assist the SCF in identifying other revenue streams that could compliment or supplement property and sales tax revenues in achieving the desired funding goals and assist in the development of statutory mechanics needed to achieve the preferred approach.

The selected vendor must assist the CSF in meeting is statutory duties under the Nevada Revised Statutes in a timely manner and make any presentations to the CSF relating to this work upon their request.

AGENCY

The NDE leads and collaborates with Nevada's 17 school districts and the State Public Charter School Authority to advance educational equity Statewide. With offices in Nevada's capital, Carson City, and Las Vegas, NDE oversees all pre-K-12 education in the State with mission of improving student achievement and educator effectiveness by ensuring opportunities, facilitating learning, and promoting excellence. Under the leadership of the State Board of Education and the Superintendent of Public Instruction, NDE impacts the achievement of nearly half a million children and 30,000 educators.

CONCURRENT IMPACTS/PROJECTS

Vendors are encouraged to review https://doe.nv.gov/commission-on-school-funding/ which includes archived CSF meeting materials and recommendations.

REQUIREMENTS AND DELIVERABLES

The NDE requires technical assistance in its support of the CSF in accordance with NRS 387.1246 et seq (as amended in the 2023 Legislative Session) in conducting reviews of data and providing recommendations, reports, and testimony regarding the same.

Proposing Vendors shall explain in sufficient detail how the Vendor shall satisfy project requirements and any deadlines or milestones necessary for timely completion of the project in its entirety on or before August 1, 2024 (consistent with a Letter of Instruction provided to NDE from the Nevada Legislature related to reporting deadlines necessary to prepare budgetary recommendations for the following biennium).

Vendors are encouraged to tie all deliverable proposals to each component of the RFP being satisfied (reporting may serve to accomplish multiple goals, but should represent a complete solution for the NDE, and by extension, CSF).

All deliverables become property of the State of Nevada. An awarded Vendor may not license or sell data belonging to the State of Nevada for other purposes or projects without express written permission from the State of Nevada via contract amendment.

Pricing must include hourly rates and methodologies for billing time and determining appropriate level of expertise for work provided.

Hourly billing rates for all personnel must be agreed upon in writing and changes to the same must be agreed to upon contract amendment. Such rates must include all items of overhead. Overhead includes all administrative or general costs incidental to the operation of Vendor and will not be separately reimbursable.

All time records must represent the actual time required to perform the task or activity and must be kept in time increments of one tenth of an hour (or 6 minutes). Timekeeping must be kept to support invoicing and timekeepers should not routinely work more than ten hours per day. Separate explanation is required for timekeeper billing that exceeds ten hours in a given day.

Task descriptions must identify each task in sufficient detail to permit the State to ascertain the benefit derived from such service. Generic descriptions will not be acceptable for billing purposes.

Blocked or combined billing of time will not be approved.

Providing testimony to public bodies is anticipated related to generated reporting and recommendations and should be inclusive in any pricing (i.e., it should not represent an additional cost to the State as it is a form of warranty to defend and support methodologies and research for given deliverables).

The level of expertise of the individual performing a task must be appropriate to the complexity of the task. Principals should not bill for tasks that can be performed competently by others at a lower cost to the State. NDE expects that Vendors will operate to minimize applicable expenses where possible to less demanding tasks.

Unless specifically authorized in advance, the State will not pay for administrative tasks, including but not limited to preparing or reviewing billing statements, scheduling personnel, preparing budgets of time, staffing, or total costs of projected work, complying with State practices and procedures, maintaining calendar or project management systems, researching general industry or agency trends, investigating conflicts of interest, or opening and closing of files.

Unless specifically authorized in advance, the State will not pay for clerical charges, including but not limited to organization of files, preparing bills, invoices, correspondence, scheduling, costs of subscription or educational expenses, professional association or membership fees, or storage charges.

The Vendor must notify NDE whenever cumulative billing over the life of a resulting contract reaches 80% of the Not to Exceed Amount set forth in the resulting contract, so that a determination may be made regarding possible contract amendments or direction in relation to projected versus actual time spent on deliverables.

Travel (if authorized and requested) must follow GSA rates and State policy guidelines and estimated in any cost proposal presented by Vendors (See also State Administrative Manual: https://budget.nv.gov/uploadedFiles/budgetnvgov/content/Governance/SAM.pdf or “SAM”).

Vendors shall not duplicate research or other work previously performed and should take maximum advantage of expertise from similar matters. The State will not compensate Vendors for one person redoing the work of another. The State will not compensate for time previously spent developing expertise in areas relevant to the instant RFP but could compensate for documented time spent supplementing expertise with updates as directed by the State’s scope herein.

The State will not compensate Vendors for travel time (if allowed) where work may also be performed while engaged in methods of travel that allow for performance of work during travel. Charges for services during travel will not normally be reimbursable unless the time is actually used to perform services.

While the RFP references certain research regarding legal and regulatory requirements, by law the counsel for the NDE is the Office of the Attorney General and nothing herein is to be interpreted as seeking legal advice or legal representation. See NRS 228.110.

Vendors must not communicate with agency representatives and only with the designated point of contact for the RFP until Notice of Award is issued.

Vendors shall acknowledge their review of NRS 334.080 and disclose in writing the nature of any contact with NDE employees from July 1, 2023 up to the date of their bid submission.

If subcontractors shall be used for any tasks, Vendors shall indicate what tasks and the percentage of time subcontractor(s) shall spend on those tasks.

Third party expenses must be estimated and included in any cost proposal and must similarly comply with the same requirements as if the third party were an employee of the Vendor.

Proposing Vendors shall also identify any best practices in reporting and research that should have been undertaken to support the prior recommendations of the CSF to allow NDE to determine if prior performance in this area has been appropriate and all prior deliverables have been appropriately turned over to the State.

Vendors must represent that there are no conflicts of interest related to NDE specifically, or the State of Nevada generally, and promise to disclose such conflicts if they arise in future.

Vendors must disclose whether they intend to use any Artificial Intelligence or machine learning tools in their proposed performance/project plan and provide the identity of such platforms and affirm that terms or conditions associated with the use of such tools by the Vendor purports to allow ownership of State data by another party.

The State does not permit advertisement or promotion of a contractual relationship with the State in marketing efforts outside of listing the State as a client in client listings unless specifically agreed to in writing.

Reporting on Best Practices

Vendor shall provide a report of its review of performance and financial reporting frameworks in other states related to education.

Vendor shall provide a comprehensive crosswalk document showing federal and state policies and regulations for agency and CSF use and review.

Vendor shall provide a report on identified best practices for each of the indicators identified in AB 400, SB 89, and any other indicators necessary as communicated to Vendor by CSF through NDE.

Vendor’s submitted reporting shall be comprehensive in its review and presentation of federal and state policies and regulations for use by NDE and CSF.

Vendor’s submitted reporting shall incorporate evaluation of improvement plans in any frameworks reviewed or recommended.

Additional Reporting Requirements

Vendor shall understand and be aware that the audience for any reporting or deliverables includes the NDE, CSF, and stakeholders/partners in the education space and as such should be of a quality and caliber (such as through white papers) for use in development of policy and communication supporting policy.

Vendor shall demonstrate competence in preparation of and making virtual and/or in-person disability and culturally inclusive and accessible presentations to CSF and others at the direction of NDE in support of all research and recommendations through the reporting requirements detailed herein.

Any submitted presentation material must be submitted a minimum of one calendar week prior to the scheduled presentation date to allow for compliance with Nevada Open Meeting Law posting requirements.

Vendor shall be available to NDE during Nevada business hours for meetings, discussions, or collaboration virtually or in-person as may be required.