Editorial: Meetings law applies to all

Friday, Sept. 2, 2005 | 9:36 a.m.

The Nevada Tax Commission wants to give a California utility $40 million without telling anybody why. Attorney General Brian Sandoval has filed a lawsuit, saying such secrecy is prohibited by the state's open meeting law.

The commission points to a law that allows anyone appealing their tax levies to meet privately with the commissioners when discussing the specifics of their finances. This is reasonable, as it safeguards financial privacy and proprietary information that would be useful to competitors. But the commission contends that state law allows it to conduct the whole proceeding in private, including all discussions among commissioners as well as the final vote.

When the commission voted in secret to return $40 million in taxes paid by Southern California Edison, which operates a power plant near Laughlin, Sandoval sued, saying the public had a right to know why the decision was made. The open meeting law allows certain information to be disclosed behind closed doors but requires that deliberations and voting be held in public. After the lawsuit was filed, state Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, sought an opinion from the Legislature's legal arm, the Legislative Counsel Bureau. The bureau sided with the commission and Townsend said that was only right, as it has deliberated and voted in private for years.

Our view is that there is nothing in the open meeting law that exempts the Tax Commission from its stipulations. Sandoval's lawsuit should prevail.