CARSON CITY -- Petitions that could impose a property tax cap in Nevada similar to California's Proposition 13 were turned in to county clerks Tuesday, while three other petitions filed Monday faced new legal challenges.
Sharron Angle, a former GOP state assemblywoman from Reno, personally turned in her property tax ballot measure petitions at several Northern Nevada county clerk offices. Her last stop of the day was Reno.
Other volunteers turned in signatures elsewhere in Nevada. The signatures must be turned in to each of the county clerks.
It was a big day for the former lawmaker, who has tried on several occasions without success to get a constitutional amendment before Nevada voters to limit property tax increases.
The petition would limit property tax increases to 2 percent per year. The current limit imposed by the Legislature in 2005 is 3 percent per year for most homeowners and higher for other property owners.
Angle has always been concerned the legislative cap could be changed at the whim of lawmakers.
"We have over the minimum number," she said of the signatures collected. "I don't know exactly how many over. But we've made over the minimum, and I think we're in good shape.
"We're not out of the woods yet," Angle said. "Of course, we always have the verification process and then court time again."
Angle's petition does not currently face a legal challenge, but that could change.
Three other constitutional amendments, two that would reallocate "excess" convention authority revenues to other uses, including education, and a third measure that would require a two-thirds vote by the public to increase taxes sought on ballot questions, faced new legal challenges from Clark County government entities and a labor union.
The three petitions already face one set of legal challenges intended to keep them off the ballot. Now there is a new and different challenge based on whether the petition circulators followed state law.
An attorney for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, in a letter to Secretary of State Ross Miller dated Tuesday, challenges the two petitions being bankrolled by Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman Sheldon Adelson.
The letter by attorney Todd Bice for the convention authority and other government entities said the petitions are defective because the affidavits required from the individuals who circulated each petition didn't follow Nevada law.
The letter says the circulators did not state the number of signatures collected on the required affidavits.
"Here the defect in both petitions is clear and obvious," the letter says. "These are not technical or minor omissions."
The challenge to the two-thirds vote measure, filed by AFL-CIO spokesman Danny Thompson with Miller and Clark County Registrar Larry Lomax, makes similar claims that the petitions lack required affirmations by the petition circulators.
Former state Treasurer Bob Seale, who oversaw the convention authority signature gathering process, said only that his attorneys were evaluating the complaint and that no further comment was coming at this time.
Angle's petition was initially challenged by the state AFL-CIO, but she finally won the battle to gather signatures.
Under the petition, property taxes could not be increased by more than 2 percent a year until the home, business or property is sold. Then the property would be taxed at the sale price.
Angle and her We the People Nevada organization must have 58,828 valid signatures or the petition will not go to the voters in November.
Angle failed in 2004 and 2006 to secure enough signatures.
If voters get the chance and pass her petition this November and again in 2010, the 2 percent annual limit would be placed in the state constitution. That could not be changed without a vote of the people.
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