Education initiative is first to qualify

Thursday, June 24, 2004 | 9:22 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Assemblywoman Dawn Gibbons estimates she will have to raise $250,000 in the coming months to convince voters to approve the proposed "Educational First" constitutional amendment.

The initiative was the first to be certified as valid for the November ballot, when Secretary of State Dean Heller announced Wednesday that it had gathered 64,193 verified signatures. To get on the ballot, 51,337 were required with 10 percent of the voters in 13 of the 17 counties signing the document.

"That's awesome," Gibbons, a Reno Republican, said when she heard the news.

County clerks and voter registrars are now checking the validity on five other initiative petitions dealing with such things as raising the minimum wage by $1 above the federal level, allowing adults to possess one ounce of marijuana, financing Nevada schools up to the national average, reducing insurance rates by 20 percent and stopping frivolous lawsuits.

Clerks and registrars have until July 2 to verify the signatures on the other petitions, the secretary of state said.

The Education First initiative, if it passes, would require the Legislature to pass the budget for financing public schools before any other budget could be approved. In the 2003 Legislature the deadlock over a tax increase plan delayed passage of the school aid bill.

School districts complained this hindered their hiring of teachers for the fall semester.

"No one was happy with the way things went," Gibbons said. "We don't want this to happen again."

Gibbons' husband, Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., originally proposed the "Education First" initiative.

Dawn Gibbons, who is not running for re-election, said she will raise the money to advertise the initiative. That may be tough, with the presidential candidates seeking more money from people for their campaigns, she said.

She indicated most would be spent on television. But then she wondered if the public would be so tired of political advertising that they would turn off their TV sets.

Asked about the reaction of legislators to the initiative, Gibbons said it has been "very favorable." Traditionally the Legislature passes the final budget acts at the same time at the end of the session.

But in 2003, the school aid bill was held until the tax plan was passed to supply enough money.

The initiative must be approved by the voters this election and in 2006 before it becomes part of the Nevada Constitution.