Editorial: Long odds on property tax hike

Friday, May 30, 1997 | 11:44 a.m.

IT'S anyone's guess whether voters would endorse a proposed constitutional amendment to fund school construction, but, from the looks of the Assembly vote, they may get their chance.

The amendment passed by a 24-18 margin and now is headed to the Senate.

The amendment would allow the state to raise the debt limit from 2 percent to 3 percent of assessed property valuation. The increase would cost an owner of a $100,000 home about $25 a year. It would be the first time the state got involved in the business of school construction.

That job is now handled by district bond issues. Clark County schools have been given more than $1 billion in bond issues to keep up with the population growth. Under this plan, additional property taxes would be collected statewide, then meted out to the individual districts.

But the amendment process is laboriously slow and would not help Clark County schools for at least four years. If the amendment passes this Legislature, the next session also must approve it. Then the voters would have a chance to ratify it in the year 2000.

And Nevada politics could blur the picture. Many of the opponents of the measure are Northern Nevadans whose constituencies have trounced prior bond issues. In Elko, Washoe and Storey counties, voters defeated school bond issues. In Storey County, a school rehabilitation bond was voted down just this month. Only Mineral and Clark counties experienced voter approval of school bonds in the last election.

This could raise questions about how the property taxes might be distributed if the amendment is enacted. Northern Nevada counties might argue they need the money more than the South to overcome past bond issue failures at the polls.

But Clark County school officials have pleaded for reforms in school financing. Bond issues have been taken to the voters every two years as construction tries to keep up with the growth.

And there's entrenched voter resistance to higher property taxes. Gaining support for this issue will be a tough sell, especially in light of the voluntary tax burdens Clark County voters have approved in recent years for schools and better police protection. Nevertheless, if approved, this issue would help restore tax equity that was thrown out of whack in the early 1980s when property rates were slashed.

Legislative approval is the first small step. A new Legislature will have to approve it again and then it will receive its acid test, at the polls. It would be hard for anyone to give odds on that outcome.