‘Axe the Tax’ leader says petition drive is ‘going strong’

Friday, July 9, 2004 | 9:01 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Efforts to gather signatures on an initiative petition to repeal the $833.5 million tax increase are "going strong," says a leader of the drive.

But Christopher Hansen, a leader of Nevadans For Sound Government, said he's much less confident about whether there will be the necessary signatures on the initiative to ban public employees from serving in the Legislature.

The initiatives must have 51,337 signatures including 10 percent of the voters in 13 of the 17 counties signing the documents by July 20. The petitions were originally due June 15 but District Judge Kenneth Cory allowed an extra 35 days because of troubles the group faced when trying to gather names at public places.

Hansen said Thursday that "Axe The Tax" petition was doing great. He said there are more than 30,000 signatures in Clark County alone. The group is getting more than 1,200 names a day in Southern Nevada, Hansen said. Ten percent of the voters in Clark County works out to 31,360 signatures.

He said his sister Janine drove 500 miles this week to get 60 signatures in rural Nevada to qualify in Mineral and another unidentified county.

But the petition to bar government employees from the Legislature, he said is "going right down to the wire."

He said the group has received a "great reception" at the Reno office of the state Department of Motor Vehicles. He said the agency supplied chairs and allowed the petition gatherers to come inside when the sun got too hot.

In the suit filed by Nevadans For Sound Government, it alleged that the motor vehicle department, UNLV and the bus station in Reno hindered its efforts to collect signatures.

Janine Hansen and her son were arrested at the municipal bus station in Reno for trespassing but the charges were later dropped.

Christopher Hansen said there had been a "problem" on July 4 in Las Vegas when workers tried to obtain signatures at a fireworks show. The police were called, he said and officers agreed that the group had a right to seek people to sign the petition.