Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Ralliers plan to speak against tax foes

CARSON CITY -- Nevadans brandishing a motto of "Ax the Tax" now have until May 18 to collect 51,243 signatures of eligible voters who want to scrap this year's $836 million tax increase. Referendum opponents say, however, that repealing the new or increased levies on payroll, cigarettes, liquor, casinos, property transfers and banks will force severe cuts in government services.

Parents, retirees, educators, health care workers and others plan to gather in front of the Dula Senior Center in Las Vegas today to call for the truth to be told "about the impact of drastic cuts to the state budget," said Mary Jo Malloy, a parent and a small-business owner who helped organize the rally. "It's easy to talk about cutting taxes, but the mystery is where they would propose the cuts be made."

Today's rally is a reaction to Nevadans for Sound Government's Thursday filing of the paperwork necessary to start collecting signatures for a possible referendum.

They need enough registered voters' signatures to equal 10 percent of the total votes cast in the last election by May 18.

George Harris, leader of Sound Government, said he expects to get 80,000 signatures to ensure there are adequate names to qualify the question for the November 2004 election. Volunteers and paid employees will be used to gather the signatures.

He said the public is angry at the Legislature for approving the taxes and he thinks the rollback will be approved by the voters.

He said he's not concerned about the cutbacks that the rollback would force.

"Gov. (Kenny) Guinn caused this mess. We want his office to fix it," Harris said.

Guinn's press secretary Greg Bortolin said, "The problem is where do they propose to make the cuts?"

He asked if supporters of the tax repeal want to eliminate guards at prisons, cut off the needy on welfare, reduce the low-cost prescription drug program for seniors or slice mental health and health programs.

He also pointed out that Republican and Democratic legislators representing two-thirds of the people passed the tax package in July.

"In spite of all the rhetoric, the Legislature overwhelmingly passed this," Bortolin said.

It allowed Nevada to preserve its credit and bond rating, hire 1,800 teachers needed statewide, start classes on time and not end them a month early the way Oregon did, Bortolin said.

"It's easy to say repeal but what happens when that happens?" he asked.

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, agreed, saying cuts of $700 million to the budget would be "disastrous."

"I have significant problems with someone saying they would roll back revenues and not saying how they would do it," Perkins said.

Harris said the petition would leave untouched the money for support of the public schools and the funds for class size reduction.

While the referendum would repeal the $836 million in new taxes, it would restore the old taxes of $100 per year per employee paid by business. That would result in $165 million to the budget.

And the referendum does not repeal the increases in fees charged by the secretary of state's office and the reduced allowances granted businesses for collecting taxes. Those add up to $75 million for the two years. So altogether, there would be an estimated $240 million coming into state government coffers instead of the $836 million.

Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, one of those who helped draft the tax package, said everybody has a right to petition their government but he disagreed with this group. He noted the state's Republican governor suggested a $990 million tax increase and some people said the state really needed $1.3 billion in new tax revenue.

The budget committees of the Legislature pared the budgets but had to take into account the major growth, particularly in Southern Nevada.

The needs in Nevada are great, ranging from education to mental health to the developmentally disabled, Townsend said. "We can't expect teachers to come to work when the school district says they 'may' have a contract."

He said the legislators, particularly in Southern Nevada, should be out telling the public how the money is being spent.

"And one thing has to be stated: Every time the Clark County Commission authorizes a 2,000-home development, the impact falls on all governments including the state," Townsend said. "They (Clark County) get the revenue of growth and we get the responsibility."

Earlier in the day, Harris' group filed an initiative petition for a constitutional amendment to bar public employees from serving in the Legislature. Harris said Sen. Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, a dentist employed by the University and Community College System, pushed through a 222 percent increase for the dental school at UNLV.

Harris said Perkins got a 93 percent increase in funding for Nevada State College in Henderson. And there were double- digit increases in other program while other states were cutting budgets because of financial problems.

Harris alleged that the Legislature went on a "feeding frenzy," and the tax averages out to $255 for "every man, woman and child." "The Legislature was out of control," Harris said.

Opponents of the referendum say the tax package was simply an attempt to live up to responsibilities.

They also said there may be technical problems with the referendum effort.

Brenda Erdoes, counsel to the Nevada Legislature, had questioned whether the referendum was correctly drawn since it did not include the language in the law that is being sought to be repealed.

The referendum petition refers only to numbers of sections in the state law to be repealed. For instance it wants to repeal Sections 1-128 of Senate Bill 8.

Harris said attorneys in his group believe the petition is in its proper form. And he intends to have a full copy of the law with each person who gathers signatures so that voters can see what is in those sections.

Secretary of State Dean Heller plans to ask the state attorney general's office for a legal opinion whether the petition can be valid without the full 161 pages of the bill.

Harris said he expected donations to finance the hiring of paid signature gatherers. But he said he may not file a disclosure form with the Secretary of State telling who contributed.

The reason, he said, is that supporters of the effort fear retaliation. He referred to Harrah's Entertainment Co. scrapping its contracts at Lake Tahoe casinos with Capital Beverage, which distributed Budweiser beer, because the gaming giant was angry that Capital Beverage owner Kurt Brown opposed the tax plan.

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