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Apr. 04, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Gaming tax hike petitions in works

Teachers union lauds rejection of challenge

By ED VOGEL
REVIEW-JOURNAL CAPITAL BUREAU

CARSON CITY -- The head of the state teachers union said Thursday that her organization will begin immediately to circulate a petition that would let voters decide whether to increase the gaming tax rate to benefit education.

Lynn Warne, president of the Nevada State Education Association, said she was thrilled that acting Judge Miriam Shearing threw out challenges to the petition filed by gaming industry lawyers.

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    • The association must collect 58,836 signatures by May 20 to place it before voters in November.

    Under the petition, the gaming tax rate, now 6.75 percent, would increase to 9.75 percent. The additional 3 percentage points would raise $250 million to $400 million a year.

    The petition specifies the additional revenue would be spent on higher pay for teachers and other school employees, except for administrators, and on programs to improve student achievement.

    Nevada Resort Association President Bill Bible did not return a call late Thursday for comment. But following the hearing Monday before Shearing, Bible said his organization might appeal an unfavorable decision to the state Supreme Court.

    Warne said she expects that will happen.

    "It is a delaying tactic," she said. "The gamers are going to do everything they can to keep this off the ballot, because they know voters will pass it."

    A poll by the Review-Journal last fall found more than 2-to-1 support for the plan to tax gaming at a higher rate to pay for improving education.

    Warne said the NSEA has no choice but to start circulating petitions now, because the deadline to submit signatures is less than six weeks away. If the Supreme Court were to change a single word on the petition, then any signatures the NSEA collects would be voided.

    Since the union is trying to amend the state constitution, the petition must be approved by voters in November and again in 2010. The higher tax would not be implemented before 2011.

    The union's lawyer, Mike Dyer, said Shearing, a retired Supreme Court justice acting as a district judge, rejected arguments by the Nevada Resort Association and Las Vegas Sand that the petition violated a state law limiting petitions to a single subject.

    Dyer said Shearing found the plan to increase salaries and improve student achievement is "functionally equivalent and germane to each other." The law permits petitions that contain several items as long as they meet the functionally equivalent requirement.

    In her 12-page opinion, Shearing said it is clear the NSEA regards teacher quality and student achievement as "inextricably intertwined."

    Only three months ago, Shearing threw out a similar NSEA petition on the grounds it violated the single-subject rule. That petition specified in detail how the revenue would be spent. For example, 40 percent of the funds under the first petition would have gone to salaries, 20 percent for incentive pay and 40 percent for reducing class sizes, covering out-of-pocket expenses by teacher and other items.

    After that decision, the NSEA filed the second petition, which does not specify what percentage of funds would go for salaries and for student achievement programs.

    While the gaming industry quickly challenged the second petition, this time Shearing found no reason to prevent it from being circulated.

    "This time it was not confusing," Warne said. "She has given us a clean bill. We are going to move forward."

    Contact Review-Journal Capital Bureau chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or (775) 687-3901.



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    Timothy wrote on April 07, 2008 07:58 AM: Why not implement a state lottery to help with education like so many other states do? Although I'm not sure the casinos would support that either. But they have to choose one or the other.


    willy wrote on April 04, 2008 05:24 PM: Smart comments are few and far between here because the webmaster just loves censorship. Maybe he was raised in Cuba?


    Chris wrote on April 04, 2008 03:18 PM: LOL at some of these comments...'line the pockets of the few', 'special gov't employees'? Umm this $ would buy new equip for the district, recruit more staff, etc...not give Dr. Ruffles a bonus check. And, as a result, maybe bump us up from second-to-last on the list of funding per student (by state). God forbid (your) kids actually get a decent public education...but hell, then again, my business thrives on folks willing to work for minimum wage, and there’s no shortage in this town. It’s your call (and kids’ futures), keep sympathizing w/the $1,000,000,000.00+ gaming industry if you’d like! (Oh and that is “1 billion” written out for you CCSD students out there)…


    Chris wrote on April 04, 2008 03:18 PM: Nail on the head Rose...


    Rose wrote on April 04, 2008 03:07 PM: I think it's funny that the casino's made every effort to back the smoking ban in order to bring more business to the casinos. This made some bars and restaurants lose business, lay off employees and perhaps even close. The result more money for the casino's and less tax revenue coming from these smaller bars. Now that this new increase in taxes is going to affect them they are crying foul. They really didn't care how many other businesses were affected when they backed the smoking ban. The casino's were greedy and wanted all the business for themselves. Now they should pay.


    snoggs wrote on April 04, 2008 01:08 PM: they sure aren't special john, did you know teachers will soon not be able to receive social securities checks upon retirement? if you get a pension you shouldn't get a higher salary? wow, what planet are you from?


    John wrote on April 04, 2008 12:19 PM: Gov't employees already receive pensions, they don't need higher salaries. The federal and state governments should save $ now by removing unions and pensions for new employees. They should use the thrift savings plan just like I use my 401K. Gov't employes aren't special.


    Laura wrote on April 04, 2008 10:47 AM: Why increase a tax that punishes only one of our state's industries?

    Wouldn't it be better to increase the sales tax (which even those residents here illegally have to pay) to raise more funds for the schools.

    And even though the petition states the funds must be used for teacher salaries rather than administrator salaries that simply isn't possible.




    snoggs wrote on April 04, 2008 10:25 AM: william bonzy are you not taking everything into consideration? it seems that anything that has to do with teachers, a certain segment of the population jumps to condemn teachers as being inept. there are high schools that class sizes are approaching 50 students in a class, demographically the majority of students in the ccsd are hispanic. did you know sir, that in mexico less than half of the students graduate from elementary school? it's been said that 22% of the students in the ccsd are illegal. how much of the tax payers dollars does that eat up? why doesn't the segment that wants to blame teachers for all the negatives smarten up?


    Ken wrote on April 04, 2008 10:20 AM: ET Go home.

    Or are you here because your company left California because of the huge business taxes levied against them.
    When will people like you and your ilk understand?


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