Drug commission chief says voters should decide on booze taxes

Tuesday, July 15, 1997 | 11:25 a.m.

But Dorothy North, chief of the Gov. Bob Miller's Commission on Substance Abuse, Education, Prevention, Enforcement and Treatment says voters will disagree.

North says she intends to give voters that chance by putting the issue on the ballot.

"We're looking at a ballot initiative or question of some kind," she says, adding that could be in the form of an advisory question or something more specific directing the state to beef up substance abuse programs.

"Basically, we're going to continue to pursue this," she said. "If we get enough information out there between now and the next election, I think this is going to be very much on the front burner as an issue."

AB92 would have increased booze taxes across the board to generate about $54 million a year. North says it would have imposed about a nickel per drink in taxes.

"I call it a user fee," she said, pointing out that the majority of alcohol is consumer by a small number of people. "They're the problem so let them pay for it."

Using that logic, North managed to get the bill approved by the Assembly Judiciary Committee. But it stalled in the Taxation Committee when Chairman Bob Price, D-North Las Vegas, couldn't raise the votes for approval.

"It certainly wasn't from lack of public support," she said pointing to a survey last winter by the Center for Applied Research at the University of Nevada Reno.

According to the survey, 68 percent of Nevadans favor raising cigarette and liquor taxes to generate revenue for those programs. That same survey shows more than 76 percent favor spending more on programs to prevent juvenile crime. North said juvenile crime is also closely tied to substance abuse problems.

North says the gambling industry opposed the liquor tax hike and that killed it. AB92 would have provided money for all branches of the governor's commission: treatment, education, prevention and enforcement.