Drug chairwoman looks at public petition on liquor tax

Tuesday, July 15, 1997 | 9:17 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Unsuccessful in the Nevada Legislature, the head of the state substance abuse board says she's going to ask the voters to impose a multi-million dollar tax increase on the liquor industry.

Dorothy North, head of the Governor's Commission on Substance Abuse, Education, Prevention, Enforcement and Treatment, said Monday she will be meeting with political consultants and other professionals about getting the issue on the 1998 election ballot.

"This issue is not going away," said North, who lives in Elko. "It has too much of an impact on the quality of life in Nevada."

To qualify a question for the 1998 ballot would require the signatures of 46,764 registered voters, according to the Secretary of State's Office. That figure is 10 percent of the 467,657 people who cast ballots in the 1996 general election.

Morgan Baumgartner, a lobbyist for the Nevada Beer Wholesalers Association and the Nevada Resort Association, said the bill in the Legislature was punitive against one industry. It sought to raise taxes by $54 million.

Before taking a position on the public question, Baumgartner said she wants to see how the question will be worded and the amount of the tax proposed. She suggested it would be a "hard sell" for the proposal "because there are a lot of people out there who don't want tax increases."

The bill in the Legislature, dubbed "nickel-a-drink," cleared the Assembly Judiciary Committee but was buried in the Assembly Taxation Committee.

Asked how the gaming and liquor industry will react to the initiative, North said, "They are going to hate it. They will use the same kind of scare tactics they did in the (legislative) hearings," including claims it will result in the loss of jobs and the ruination of many small businesses in Nevada.

Under Assembly Bill 92, $11 million each would have gone to treatment programs, law enforcement, school districts, the state Department of Education and to the 17 counties for uncompensated emergency medical care for problems with alcohol.

"People need to understand the seriousness of the problem," North said. A survey of 7,000 households in Nevada showed a 19 percent alcohol or drug addiction rate, which is twice the national average.

North, who runs a management company, is under contract to operate the Vitality Center in Elko that treats alcoholics. There is a lack of treatment facilities across the state, she said.

She dismisses the argument this tax would harm the liquor industry. "People drinking most of the liquor are going to drink, no matter," North said.

When the cost of tobacco rose, it didn't stop smoking, she said.

She hopes to develop a strategy in the next few months in getting the issue before the public in November 1998.