Initiative to repeal tax hike won’t be on ballot

Friday, Oct. 1, 2004 | 10:46 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The initiative to repeal the $833.5 million tax increase apparently won't appear before the voters in November.

Carson City District Judge Bill Maddox Thursday rejected the appeal of Nevadans For Sound Government to put the referendum petition on the ballot. He upheld the decision of Secretary of State Dean Heller, who ruled there were not enough signatures of registered voters on the petition and there was no evidence that valid signatures had not been counted.

George Harris, president of Nevadans for Sound Government, said he assumed Thursday morning the appeal would be unsuccessful. He did not attend the decision and referred questions to Joel Hansen, attorney for the group.

Hansen said there probably would not be an appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court but he had to talk with Harris first.

"We have done everything in our power to get this on the ballot," Hansen said.

He said the voters should have a chance to decide on the proposed repeal of the taxes.

The referendum petition was required to have the signatures of 51,337 registered voters to qualify it for the ballot, but it fell short. The organization said it encountered governmental opposition and said the question should be added to the ballot, even though it didn't achieve the required signatures.

The group, which was blocked from gathering signatures at some government buildings, was given an extra 35 days to obtain the required names of voters. It still came up short.

Carole Vilardo, president of the Nevada Taxpayers Association, which fought to keep the referendum off the ballot, said continuing with an appeal could cause more problems.

"Your obviously getting very, very late because you're having ballots that are getting printed and ballots that are getting mailed," she said. "I would hope at this point that we've seen the last of the court question on this referendum."

Vilardo said petition issues are still out there and may need to be settled by the state Legislature.

One of the issues Hansen argued was that those who signed the petition also registered to vote at the same time. But the registration forms were turned in later, not the same day. Those signatures weren't counted on the petition.

Senior Deputy Attorney General Victoria Oldenburg said the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld Nevada law that the voter registration turned in a day or more after the filing of the petitions were eligible to be counted.

Oldenburg said even if those signatures were counted, the referendum was still 1,500 names short. She argued there was no evidence any county clerk or registrar of voters rejected any valid signatures.

Hansen said Clark County District Judge Ken Cory gave the group an extra 35 days to gain the signatures. The judge based his decision on the testimony of Clark County Voter Registrar Larry Lomax, who said he needed the final count in 35 days in order to prepare for the general election.

Sun reporter Eric Leake contributed to this story.