Thursday, July 10, 2003 | 5:05 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- In a victory for the public schools, the Nevada Supreme Court today ordered the Legislature back into session and ruled only a simple majority is needed to pass a tax plan to balance the state's budget.
The court granted, in part, the petition by Gov. Kenny Guinn, who asked that the lawmakers be directed to return to session and complete their business of a tax bill and a school aid bill by a set time.
The court did not set any deadline.
But the court included in the 6-1 decision an opinion that could make it easier for the Legislature to reach agreement. The court ruled that the two-thirds requirement in the Constitution must take a second seat to the constitutional mandate that the public schools must be supported by the state.
The Assembly had failed several times by one vote to reach the two-thirds majority required on a tax package.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said he would call the Senate back into session Monday. He hoped an agreement could be reached early next week.
He still planned to hold leadership negotiations starting Friday to hammer out a compromise before the session officially reconvenes.
He said the court ruling gives an "impetus" to reaching a compromise to break the deadlock.
Guinn said the ruling "leaves no doubt that legislators must finish their work without further delay."
"I look forward to being presented a final bill to fund education and a compromise package that raises the necessary revenue to balance the budget. Nevada's parents, teachers and future generations of leaders deserve no less," the governor said.
Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., who launched the initiative to require a two-thirds vote on taxes that is now in the Constitution, said he was outraged by the court's decision.
The court "willfully ignored the wishes of more than 70 percent of Nevadans who twice voted in favor of requiring a two-thirds majority to pass a tax increase," he said. "The court failed to protect the will of the people of Nevada and has denigrated our state's constitution and political process."
Assembly Minority Leader Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville, who has led the opposition to a tax package, was disappointed by the ruling. "Why didn't they let the Legislature proceed with its work?
"They just wiped out the Constitution and two votes of the people," said Hettrick who has held his 15 GOP votes together to prevent a two-thirds vote on a tax plan.
"What they did is to tear up the Constitution," said Assemblyman Ron Knecht, R-Carson City, who was among those 15 votes.
Raggio said his legislative legal advisers feel the issue cannot be appealed to the federal court since it is a state dispute.
Attorney General Brian Sandoval, who represented Guinn in the case, said he was pleased with the outcome. The court ruling means education is paramount to the two-thirds majority in this case, he said, adding he wanted more time to analyze whether it would apply in future cases.
The ruling, authored by Chief Justice Deborah Agosti, directed the issuance of a writ of mandamus "directing the Legislature of the State of Nevada to proceed expeditiously with the 20th special session under simple majority rule."
Agosti said the two-thirds tax requirement has stymied the constitutional duty to fund the public schools. She said it was "paramount" that the schools take precedent.
The court found the Legislature failed to obey the Constitution, but it did not extend the ruling to the individual legislators and Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt, who is president of the Senate.
"We order the Legislature to fulfill its obligations under the Constitution of Nevada by raising sufficient revenues to fund education while maintaining a balanced budget," the court said.
The lone dissenter on the court was Justice Bill Maupin, who said he would defer the order of the court until the Legislature could meet again and it became evident that the schools could not be funded.
He said he would give the Legislature until July 28 to resolve the impasse before the court intervened. He noted the schools must be funded by Aug. 1.
But the majority said, "Public education is a right that the people, and the youth of Nevada, are entitled, through the Constitution, to access.
"If the procedural two-thirds revenue vote requirement in effect denies the public its expectation of access to public education, then the two-thirds requirement must yield to the specific substantive educational right," the decision said.
Ken Lange, executive director of the Nevada State Education Association that represents schoolteachers, said the court sided with the brief submitted by the organization. It said the two-thirds majority vote must give way to the paramount issue of funding education.
He and his attorney Mike Dyer considered it a victory for the teachers union.
Raggio said he did not know if it would be easier to pass a tax plan with only a simple majority required. He noted that the Assembly and Senate still are divided on the type of taxes to be passed.
The Senate has opposed any net profits tax or gross receipts tax, which the Assembly has favored.
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