Editorial: Wording is everything

Thursday, Nov. 18, 2004 | 9:03 a.m.

Question 9 on the Nov. 2 ballot asked voters if they would agree to a higher sales tax in exchange for more police officers. It passed by a margin of 16,392 votes -- out of the 518,678 cast. This was closer than many people had predicted for the heavily promoted question. Perhaps many voters were suspicious of the wording, which the Clark County Commission clarified this week.

The advisory question asked voters if they approved of an initial quarter-cent increase in the sales tax, followed by a like increase in 2009 that would bring the total increase to one-half of 1 percent. And it carried this explanation for how the money would be spent if the Legislature approved: "Revenue generated would be allocated for use by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and the police departments of Boulder City, Henderson, Mesquite and North Las Vegas to hire and equip additional police officers."

But nowhere did the question say the increased revenue would "supplement" and not "supplant" the money that is already provided by the local governments for hiring police officers. This is important, as without that stipulation, far fewer police officers might be hired than voters expected. The extra revenue, as directed by the question, would be dedicated to the police departments' hiring budgets. But absent any legal prohibition, the cities and Clark County could simply reduce their annual allotments to the departments by the amount of money raised by the sales tax increases.

Some states have been guilty of this in their lotteries, saying all proceeds would go to education. They kept that promise, but reduced their education budgets by a proportionate amount, meaning schools saw little net gain.

To ensure against this practice, the County Commission this week passed a resolution decreeing that all proceeds from the extra sales taxes would indeed be used only to supplement the police departments' hiring budgets. To further allay voters' fears, we believe the cities should also pass such resolutions.