Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Initiative to make mining pay more taxes clears hurdle

Throwing out a challenge by Nevada's mining industry, a judge ruled today the description being used to collect signatures to raise the constitutional cap on the taxing of mineral proceeds is within the bounds of the law and proponents can move forward.

District Judge James E. Wilson, Jr., said the description of the initiative was "straightforward, succinct and non-argumentative."

Nevadans United for Fair Mining Taxes, led by conservative businessman Monte Miller, has proposed raising the state's tax cap on minerals from the current 5 percent to 9 percent.

The group is working under a tight deadline — it needs to collect 71,000 signatures by mid-June to qualify for the November 2012 ballot. If it passes then, it would have to pass again in 2014 before being embedded in the constitution.

"Time on this is precious," Miller said.

Wilson's decision, which could be appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court, also allows the sponsors of the bill to have authorship of the quick summary that is at the top of the petitions waved by volunteers or workers in front of grocery stores.

Miller, who is also leading a separate measure to raise the gaming tax through state law, said the group has collected about 5,000 signatures so far.

The Nevada Mining Association has opposed the initiative. It challenged the description in court, arguing today that it should include more detail on its effect and that it failed to use the 200-word maximum allowed under state law.

The description came in at 137 words.

"Those 200 words are exceptionally valuable real estate in our democracy," argued attorney Bradley Schrager, representing the Nevada Mining Association.

An alternative description submitted by Schrager clocked in at 197 words.

That description said "this initative would depart from uniform and equal taxation for the net proceeds of minerals."

It also said that in 2010, "Nevada miners" paid $163 million in the tax; if the tax was raised to 9 percent, that would be $294 million, an increase of 80 percent.

Maggie McLetchie, the attorney for Nevadans United for Fair Mining Taxes, argued the description proposed by opponents was confusing.

Schrager said the Nevada Mining Association was still analyzing whether to appeal the ruling to the Nevada Supreme Court. He said the group believes that the proposed constitutional amendment violates state and federal constitutional provisions guaranteeing uniform and equal taxation.

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy