Lawmakers angered over local reaction to tax battle

Adrienne Packer

Friday, May 11, 2001 | 10:20 a.m.

State legislators, angered by local officials' "sky is falling" assessment of a bill that shifts certain taxes to the state, threatened to launch a recall of elected officials who cut emergency services because of the law.

Heated comments made Thursday by lawmakers on Las Vegas One's "Face to Face with Jon Ralston" brought equally combative retorts from local officials.

Assemblymen Bob Beers, R-Reno, and David Goldwater, D-Las Vegas, accused Clark County elected officials of using scare tactics to fight Senate Bill 457, a proposal they co-sponsored.

"The thing I did not expect was that they would play the absolutely vicious, vicious politics of saying we're going to take cops off the streets and if your house is burning down nobody will be there to put it out," Goldwater said.

The bill is designed to transfer local governments' share of motor vehicle privilege taxes to the state for two years to provide a statewide 2 percent cost-of-living raise for schoolteachers.

Clark County Commissioners Dario Herrera and Myrna Williams joined elected officials from North Las Vegas, Las Vegas and Henderson last week to inform the public of the adverse effect the bill could have on services.

County officials said losing $36 million from the general fund budget over two years could keep Metro Police from hiring more officers, a threat that infuriated Beers.

"I will lead the recall effort for any local official that takes a teeny, tiny, itsy-bitsy amount out of police and fire services," Beers said. "They can't argue this on numbers; it's only been an emotional argument."

The two assemblymen acknowledged their bill is only a temporary fix for the state's struggling educational system. Goldwater said schools have been underfunded since he joined the Legislature in 1995, and the crisis has reached a point in which teachers are decorating classrooms using their own money.

"The No. 1 priority in this budget cycle has got to be our children," Goldwater said. "We cannot fall further behind."

When asked why the state does not create its own source of revenue to fund schools -- like raise taxes -- the lawmakers said the motor vehicle taxes ultimately belong to the state. Clark County Commissioners Yvonne Atkinson Gates and Williams challenged the legislators' comments, saying no one has ever claimed firefighters wouldn't respond to fires or police would be taken off the streets.

However, board members said only local officials are aware of the county's financial status.

Williams and Atkinson Gates emphasized that 50 percent of the county's budget is spent on public safety, so the ability to provide emergency services would be affected.

Williams said if cuts don't come from public safety, they will come from social services, including those designated for children.

Both commissioners brushed off Beers' threats to recall local elected officials, saying their job is to balance the budget.

"I think it's kind of ridiculous," Williams said. "If he really feels that way, let him do it. We have to tell people the truth. We have to make sure they're informed and that they don't have unrealistic expectations that we'll never be able to meet."