Tax-cap advocate shuns special session

Wednesday, July 28, 2004 | 8:26 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Assemblywoman Sharron Angle, R-Reno, who has been in the forefront of the drive to limit property tax increases, says she doesn't favor a special session of the Legislature to tackle the problem.

"The state has already endured enough special sessions," said Angle, who in 2003 sponsored a proposed constitutional amendment to put a cap on how much the property tax can be raised.

Angle is splitting with other Republicans including Assembly Minority Leader Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville, one of three GOP lawmakers asking Gov. Kenny Guinn to convene the Legislature for a special session.

Guinn said Tuesday he has not made a decision whether to call the lawmakers back into session this summer. But he said he wants to learn whether the issue can wait until the 2005 regular session opens in February.

Angle favors that approach.

"It would be terribly difficult with the campaigns going on," she said.

The primary election is in September followed by the general election in November. The Legislative Counsel Bureau is now gearing up to take the hundreds of bill drafts being submitted for 2005, she said.

And she doesn't think the issue can be solved in a few days.

Nobody was listening when Angle first started talking about property-tax limitation, she said. Now she's encouraged that everybody is getting behind the issue. But she said there is no consensus on how to solve the problem.

"We have different solutions in mind. We need a longer time than two or three days in a (special) session. It's too hard an issue to solve in a short time," she said.

Her long-term plan calls for a constitutional amendment, but that would take five years. Angle also favors interim relief. That could be approved in the 2005 regular session and then there would be a rollback of the taxes to give relief to those who get hit with property tax hikes this year.

There have been four special sessions since 2001. She noted the lawmakers were called into special session to solve the medical malpractice crisis. A bill was passed, but the doctors didn't like it and gathered signatures on a petition to make further changes in the law. The 2003 Legislature rejected those suggestions, and now there is an initiative petition on the November election ballot dealing with the issue.

In addition, Angle said there will be "lots of parties" that will want to testify during a special session, including local governments and school districts that feel they may come up on the short end of any property tax limit.

Sen. Ann O'Connell, R-Las Vegas, Assemblyman David Brown, R-Las Vegas, and Hettrick are looking at the proposal by Clark County Assessor Mark Schofield to put a 6-percent cap on increases in future assessments.

Angle circulated her own initiative petition to change the state Constitution to limit annual property tax increases to 2 percent. But she didn't get enough signatures by the deadline. She said she will pursue a court challenge to try to get more time to gather the names of registered voters.

Failing that, she will submit her proposal to the 2005 Legislature, she said. It would have to be approved by the Legislature twice and then ratified by the voters.