Editorial: Initiatives take issues to voters

Friday, July 18, 1997 | 12:01 p.m.

DON'T fret if the Legislature killed one of your favorite bills this session. You can still take your fight to the people.

That's the beauty of placing a referendum or initiative on the general election ballot. It's one of the more constructive ways of telling lawmakers to take a hike.

It would be hard to find a purer form of democracy than that which allows all registered voters to have a hand in passing a law. That doesn't mean it's a piece of cake.

Dorothy North, chairwoman of the Governor's Commission on Substance Abuse, Education, Prevention, Enforcement and Treatment, is about to find that out. She's angry because the Assembly Taxation Committee buried a bill that would have increased liquor taxes to help pay for treatment programs and alcohol-related emergency medical care.

North is considering a petition drive to get the tax initiative on the November 1998 statewide ballot. To succeed, she'll have to get at least 46,764 valid signatures, or 10 percent of the 467,657 votes cast in Nevada in the 1996 general election.

She'll also have to get at least 10 percent of the votes cast in 13 of the state's 17 counties. That means at least 26,509 Clark County residents would have to sign her petition.

Even if North succeeds in getting the initiative on the ballot, she'll have to face tall political hurdles. They'll take the form of the gaming and liquor lobbies, the same groups that helped bury the bill in the Legislature.

The Nevada Resort Association and Nevada Beer Wholesalers Association have plenty of money to spend on a campaign to explain how such a measure could cost jobs and hurt business.

It goes without saying that successful ballot initiatives are usually the ones with weak opposition. A recent example was the tax-restraint initiative pushed by Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., which places limits on the Legislature's ability to raise taxes.

Anyone wishing to put an issue on the 1998 statewide or county ballot is advised to read Chapter 295 of the Nevada Revised Statutes. That chapter sets down all the rules that must be followed in order to get something on the ballot.

The statutes can be found in public libraries and on the Internet at www.leg.state.nv.us, which is the Legislature's website address.