Nickel a drink tax and four other petitions fail

Monday, Nov. 23, 1998 | 11:07 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- An initiative petition to force the 1999 Legislature to consider boosting liquor and beer taxes by as much as 600 percent has fallen short of gaining the required signatures.

"We got a couple thousand signatures in the south," said Vil Paskevicius, program director at the treatment center of the Economic Opportunity Board in Clark County. "But we didn't get the support of the north."

Also failing were initiative petitions to create a state bank; mint a $20 silver coin; force the federal government to turn over public lands to the state; and give the right to patients to choose alternative forms of medicine.

The Secretary of State's Office said Friday the five initiatives did not gather the 46,764 signatures of registered voters by the deadline of Nov. 10. In 13 of the 17 counties, 10 percent of the voters would have had to sign the petitions.

If successful, the petitions would have forced the Legislature to consider the issues. If they were not passed or in any way changed, they would be submitted to the voters in 2000 for approval.

The liquor tax was called "nickel-a-drink" plan, with the proceeds being funneled into drug and alcohol prevention, treatment and rehabilitation programs. A similar bill was introduced in the 1997 Legislature, but it was blocked by the casino industry.

Paskevicius said poor planning may have resulted in the failure to collect enough signatures. But the effort will be revived in 2000 with another petition.

While the population is growing, only $8 million in state funds is available to divide among all the treatment centers. Most centers, Paskevicius said have a 90-day waiting list.

T. David Horton, a Carson City lawyer who backed the other four petitions, said the issues will be presented to the 1999 Legislature, even though the signature-raising drive fell short. The petitions, he said "increased the profile" of the issues.

"We made an effort to get organized, but we're a volunteer organization," Horton said. "The ability to organize statewide is pretty daunting." And there has been "startling enthusiasm' for the proposals. One supporter, former North Las Vegas Assemblywoman Pat Little, is still circulating the petitions and will present them to the Legislature, Horton said.

The drive to mint a silver coin to be used as money in Nevada would "publicize the state," Horton said. He said Congress is not performing its duty to make money and has illegally turned that over to a private corporation.

Creation of a state bank, Horton said is needed to make loans, particularly in rural Nevada, where there is a shortage of capital. Nevada, Horton said, has been identified as one of the "five banking colonies" where banks are controlled by "interstate monoliths or international banks."

Only the small community banks are bringing capital into the state for lending, Horton said.

Other proposals that fell by the wayside were ones for the state to take control of the public lands, now managed by the federal government, and to protect patients and doctors who want to use alternative medicines without fear of infringement by the federal government.

Horton said these four proposal "are not dead. We will bring them up in the Legislature." And if that fails, he will again file initiative petitions in 2000.