Where I stand—Mike O’Callaghan: Pain from Carson City

Thursday, April 26, 2001 | 8:21 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor.

A FEW WEEKS from now the Nevada Legislature will adjourn and the people of Clark County had better hope that they don't leave Assembly Bill 457 behind as law. The results would take $65 million out of the pockets of local governments during the coming two years.

The bill sponsored by two Clark County legislators would shift the share of the motor vehicle privilege tax that local governments receive over to school districts. Assemblymen Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, and David Goldwater, D-Las Vegas, say it's their short-term answer to meet the needs of more money for teachers. Opponents see it as a tactic to force the local government to increase property taxes to meet their needs. This would spare the legislators from their own responsibility to meet the needs of education. Goldwater doesn't view the bill as a solution to the basic problem of funding education.

So where would Clark County and our city governments make cuts? Would our county commissioners be forced to cut into funds for parks, wetlands and trails, indigent care, Child Haven, Child Protective Services, Southern Nevada Youth Camp, police protection, jail and detention services, courts, health services, beltway building and a dozen other responsibilities? Such cuts could be deadly for a growing population.

Maybe the legislators believe that the $4 million allotted by the county commissioners for homeless care, literacy programs, Shade Tree Shelter, Special Olympics, United Way, WestCare, Girl Scouts, Economic Opportunity Board, senior centers, Boys and Girls Clubs and other needed nonprofit programs that help so many people should be set aside for two more years.

That's right, it's only for two more years according to Beers and Goldwater, who have added a sunset clause to the bill. They believe they will find some other source of money for education in 2003. We have heard that kind of talk in past sessions. Neither Goldwater nor Beers are freshmen legislators and they know that some other gimmick to duck state responsibility will again surface in that august body. In the meantime the local governments can't ignore the immediate needs of their residents and the millions of visitors that pour into this area.

Nobody denies the need for more money in education and a 2 percent cost-of-living adjustment for teachers. Assemblyman David Parks, D-Las Vegas, said that he reluctantly will support AB457 because "there is no other bill out there that is addressing this issue." Well, David, why isn't there? You are a legislator and have the power to write a bill that shoulders this responsibility. County and city commissioners are doing their jobs: Why don't legislators do theirs?

Beers says he isn't there to advocate that the local governments raise taxes. Unless it has been removed, AB457 says:

"In addition to the allowed revenue from taxes ad valorem determined pursuant to NRS 354.59811, the board of county commissioners of each county whose population is 40,000 or more, may levy a tax ad valorem on all taxable property in the county at a rate not to exceed the rate necessary to produce an amount of revenue equal to the revenue that the county estimates would have been received from the basic vehicle privilege tax by the county, and all local governments, special districts and enterprise districts within the county, if the county had been eligible to receive a portion of the the revenue from the basic vehicle privilege tax pursuant to NRS 482.180 for the fiscal year for which the allowed revenue from taxes ad valorem is being calculated. ..."

I guess this power has been included just in case cutting local services and programs to the bone forces the governments to do what legislators failed to do.

What happens to AB457 will be of interest to all Southern Nevadans. If it becomes law, the local cutting of services must be placed on the individual shoulders of the legislators who vote for it. County and city officials have told the lawmakers the problems the bill can create, so the people in Carson City are on notice.

On the other hand there is the great possibility that Gov. Kenny Guinn, who said there would be no new taxes, wouldn't sign such a bill into law. There is reason to believe he would refuse to become a participant in a legislative backdoor move to drive up taxes for Clark County voters.

If AB457 does become law there will be few, if any, clean hands in Carson City.