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Stumbledomestic violence:
Assembly passes increase in marriage license fee
Published Tuesday, May 5, 2009 | 12:55 p.m.
Updated Tuesday, May 5, 2009 | 2:33 p.m.
Sun Coverage
CARSON CITY -- A bill that would increase marriage license fees by $5 and earmark that money for domestic violence programs passed the Assembly on Monday and now heads to Gov. Jim Gibbons' desk.
Senate Bill 14 would boost the domestic violence fee portion of the marriage license fee from $20 to $25. The cost of a license now is $55, of which $20 of that goes to domestic violence programs that provide shelter, hot lines and support groups.
Assembly Minority Leader Heidi Gansert, R-Reno, said Monday that domestic violence organizations came to her and said their funding was down because the number of marriage licenses was down.
Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, D-Sparks, said "these programs have served so many women in times of need. This will continue to make sure programs are funded during a serious time of stress."
The bill passed 38-3, with Assemblyman Ty Cobb, R-Reno, Assemblyman Ed Goedhart, R-Amargosa Valley, and Assemblyman Richard McArthur, R-Las Vegas, voting against. It passed the Senate earlier this session unanimously.
Gibbons' spokesman, Dan Burns, said the governor will sign the bill when it comes to his desk.
"Governor Gibbons believes this issue is so serious, sometimes a matter of life and death, that the small fee increase is appropriate," Burns wrote in an e-mail.
Earlier this session, Estelle Murphy, director of Safe Nest in Las Vegas, told the committee the number of domestic violence cases it handles has doubled in the last 10 years.
Safe Nest supplied 39,000 bed nights for battered women and children last year, while its budget fell from $1.7 million to $1.2 million, she said. Murphy expects the budget to decline another 8 to 10 percent this year.
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Another case of rolling our resident/taxpayer responsibility off on tourists. When are we going to take care of our own stuff and stop relying on room taxes, marriage license fees, car rental taxes, etc. to fund our stuff? It's time we grow up, repeal the amendment that kills income taxes, and start paying for what we need instead of tourists who someday might get tired of funding us locals.
This again is NOT the entire story...First of all it isn't just the increase in the marriage license itself...A wedding chapel lobbyist presented an alternative in an attempt to avoid this particular increase.
Instead it was offered to increase the fee for a certified copy of the certificate which is a document now demanded by Social Security, all DMV's nationwide, Military, Imigration and even some insurance companies and mortgage companies for name changes etc...it nearly doubled the amount Domestic Violence asked for...So they took it all...Not only did they get the marriage license increase they got the certified copies too...and the wedding chapels got a hot poker...oops...nevermind...maybe I shouldn't say that here? Another slap in the face to small business during these tought times and they didn't even get credit for finding the money.
Now instead of about $600,000.00 Domestic Violence gets $1,600.000.00...That's a ton of money when every other program is being forced to make cuts...Boggles one's mind.
One more thing...It wasn't Goedhart that voted against it was...Gustavson, McArthur and Cobb....they knew the "real" deal.
This isn't actually about funding domestic abuse funds. All the money goes into one big pot, so whose to say they werent going to fund this anyway?
The strategy to increasing taxes is to attach the tax increase to a specific goal or project or program: education, fireman, children, abuse prevention. These are all things they would have likely paid for anyway. But what the tax increase does is free up other funds (which are not earmarked) for pork projects people hate. Like corporate subsidies, art parks, and buildings named after politicians.
Voting against such a tax increase doesn't mean you're against abuse prevention, it means you're against raising taxes and pro adult decision making and budget prioritizing.
These are "earmarked" funds and go directly to the "Aid to Victims of Domestic Violence".
This isn't part of that "one big pot."
Add a charge for divorce filing. That way you can get them both ways.