Tax petition leader rejects suggestion to change wording

Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2003 | 9:39 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Secretary of State Dean Heller has suggested that the group trying to repeal the $836 million tax increase amend its referendum petition so that it is not found to be invalid.

But George Harris, chairman of Nevadans for Sound Government, calls Heller's letter "nonsense" and said he intends to ask a District Court judge to rule on whether the anti-tax petition meets the requirements in the Nevada Constitution.

Harris said this was another effort by government employees to "protect the money" coming into the state.

The Harris group is circulating a petition to repeal the tax increase approved by the 2003 Legislature in special session. His petition lists the sections of the law that should be repealed. But it does not include the 159 pages of the bill that raised the taxes.

Ronda L. Moore, the deputy secretary of state for election, in a letter to Harris dated Monday, said the petition could be challenged based on the omission of the language in the bill that raised taxes.

Moore said it was the position of the office the full text of the measure must be on the referendum petition.

She said that at a minimum, all of those circulating the petition should make the language of Senate Bill 8 available to any persons who signs the document -- "although such action still may not be adequate to withstand a challenge."

Harris said his circulators have copies of the bill, SB8, available to anyone who wants to read it. But he said the full language of the law has never been required in the last 15 petitions filed.

"They have never put the entire text on the petition," he said.

Harris said he wondered whether the full 159 pages of the bill would have to be included on the election ballot also.

Harris must gather the names of 51,243 registered voters by June to put the issue on the November 2004 election ballot. He said the state workers were afraid this repeal effort will succeed and are trying to stop it.

"This is another attempt by government employees to rewrite the will of the people," Harris said.

He said a group of 20 people walked door-to-door in the Assembly District of Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, last Saturday and gained nearly 300 signatures. He said only 14 people declined to sign the referendum petition.

He said he did not have a count on how many signatures have been gathered because they are scattered all over the state.

He also said the same number signed a sister petition for a constitutional amendment to prohibit government employees from serving in the Legislature.

Under the state Constitution, all of the signatures on the referendum can be gathered from one county. The initiative petition to bar government workers from serving in the Legislature must gain 10 percent of the voters in 13 of the 17 counties. It would have to be approved by the voters in two consecutive elections.

Harris says he plans to get 80,000 signatures.