Tax initiative supporters file appeal

Kirsten Searer

Wednesday, June 23, 2004 | 11:15 a.m.

Supporters of an initiative to cap property taxes have filed an emergency appeal to put their measure on the ballot, even though they are 5,700 signatures short.

The Angle-Gustavson Property Tax Reform petition seeks to cap the state's rising property taxes in a constitutional amendment similar to California's Proposition 13.

Supporters, lead by Assemblywoman Sharron Angle, R-Reno, gathered more than 45,500 signatures in 41 days, but could not obtain the 51,337 signatures needed by June 15 to make the November ballot.

Now the petition's supporters hope to capture momentum from a judgment handed down last week by District Court Judge Ken Cory.

Cory ruled that the Nevadans for Sound Government, which is circulating two different petitions, should have an additional 35 days to gather signatures because that group's signature gatherers were harassed on public property.

Angle and her group have filed a motion to intervene in the Nevadans for Sound Government case. Cory is scheduled to hear the motion on Friday morning.

Tony Dane, a consultant for the property tax initiative, was arrested May 18 at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas when he was gathering signatures for the property tax initiative and a Nevadans for Sound Government initiative.

After his arrest, Dane said, people were afraid to gather signatures for the property tax initiative.

"We lost so many employees with that happening," he said.

Yet even with the disruption, he said, "we were still very close to qualifying."

Dane also said he had to spend three days in Las Vegas working with lawyers and testifying in the Nevadans for Sound Government case. That's time he could have used to help gather signatures in Northern Nevada for the property tax cap, he said.

"We may have still made it if I hadn't lost those three days," he said.

Dane submitted an affidavit saying he lost 70 of his 100 signature gatherers after his arrest. Each gatherer compiled an average of 50 signatures a day, he said, meaning the group lost out on an estimated 84,000 signatures between May 18 and the June 15 deadline.

The motion, filed by Reno attorney Timothy Post, argues that Cory should order the secretary of state to put the initiative on the ballot, saying that they met the "spirit of the law" and were well on their way to securing the needed signatures.

Alternatively, Cory should give them until July 20 to continue gathering signatures, and he should impose an injunction on public employees so they do not stop signature gatherers from passing petitions, the group argues.