Battle over property tax issue threatens election

By Cy Ryan

Thursday, Sept. 18, 2008 | 5:39 p.m.

CARSON CITY – The legal battle over an initiative petition for lower property taxes could throw a monkey wrench in Nevada’s election process.

Secretary of State Ross Miller, the chief election officer, is advising the Nevada Supreme Court there is no time to re-print the election ballots and mail them out to the military who are overseas or in another state to meet the deadlines in the law.

A union of school teachers has obtained a decision from Senior District Judge Charles McGee that says the property tax petition is defective and does not have the required signatures to qualify it for the November election.

Former Assemblywoman Sharron Angle of Reno, the leader of the petition drive, has appealed the McGee ruling to the Supreme Court. And Angle’s lawyer Joel Hansen has filed a motion in the Supreme Court that says Judge McGee was in a conflict of interest when he ruled.

Hansen said McGee’s wife works for the Washoe County School District. He wants the case sent back to a district judge.

But Michael Dyer, attorney for the Nevada State Education Association, says Hansen is off base. McGee’s wife retired five years ago from the school district and would not benefit one way or the other from the ruling of the judge.

The association filed the suit to block access to the ballot by the initiative.

While the teachers and the anti-tax advocates fight it out legally, the secretary of state says that with the exception of Washoe County, absentee and sample ballots have been printed for all counties and have already been mailed out to voters in the military.

Miller, represented by Senior Deputy Attorney General Nhu Q. Nguyen, said it would require at least 17 working days to complete reprinting the ballot.

The general election is Nov. 4 and early voting starts Oct. 18.

Nguyen said “There is no time between now and the election to reprint the ballot and mail to voters to meet state and federal deadlines.”

And she said “mailing a second ballot will result in a substantial cost to the state and will most likely lead to confusion as voters will be getting two ballots in the mail for the same election.”

The Supreme Court has not indicated when it will rule whether the Angle petition should be placed on the ballot.

Under the Angle petition, that would have to be passed at two elections, all property taxes would be based on 2003 values and could rise a maximum of 2 percent a year. The present law limits the increase for homeowners to 3 percent and for business to 8 percent annually.