Vol. 3, No. 17
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July 1, 2006
Nevada's Online State News Journal
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Some Referendums Didn't Make The Ballot This Year
Eminent Domain Initiative In Like Flynn -- Angle Proposition Not Close
June 20 was the deadline for those seeking to put initiative propositions on the 2006 General Election ballot. The referendum dealing with eminent domain whipped up enthusiasm enough to bring 130,000 signatures in to be verified. Each petition must garner at least 83,184 valid signatures before it can be placed on the ballot. A valid signature is one by a registered voter in a specific district. As far as the eminent domain issue is concerned, the signature must have come from a Nevada registered voter. At the first "raw" count, that is by county clerks and registrars of voters the measure had well over the nominal amount of signatures.
Bob Beers says his TASC tax proposal stands a good chance of being accepted but there are potential legal questions that may have to be answered first. The TASC petition was signed by almost 153,000 people claiming to be registered voters in Nevada. The first "raw" count at the county level indicated there were more than enough signatures to place the measure on the ballot in November. The question that must be answered is the wording that appears on some, most, or all the petition pages signed.
In the original petition on file with the Secretary of State, and this is the only one that is legally correct, base dates of 2007 to 2009 were to be used, but it appears that in most of the petitions, the dates are 2005 to 2009 which would change the concept of the law considerably. There will have to be a decision by the Secretary of State on whether or not those pages different from the file copy will be counted. If they are counted Danny Thompson, secretary-treasurer of the state AFL-CIO says he will file a court action to stop the referendum from appearing on the November ballot.
There is a period of nine days from the first "raw" to when decisions must be made on whether an initiative will appear on the ballot. When the "raw" count is accepted, then individual counties must verify the signatures based on their voter registration roll.
The TASC measure may go to court following the decision according to both sides of the argument. State Senator Bob Beers, a Republican candidate for governor has been behind the petition from the beginning and he says he is ready for any kind of court battle the unions want to bring on. The petition on file will limit the taxes that can be imposed based on the rates of inflation and the increase in population. If the measure reaches the ballot and if voters approve the petition in November, then it will have to be approved by voters again in 2008 to become the law of the state.
The other petition drive that has generated discussion around the state, a property tax proposal by Assemblywoman Sharron Angle did not gather the needed signatures and will not be on the ballot come November. The proposal is similar to the California Proposition 13 that some love, some hate. Angle said she was informed on Tuesday morning that there would not be enough signatures to qualify the measure. She said, "the process to pollute the people's right to petition is a serious disenfranchisement of voters."
Angle and the chairman of the group We The People, Cliff Nellis, blame union activists for the failure to gather enough signatures. Angle said, "The endeavor has been impeded by union-backed professionals paid to diminish the people's right to peacefully petition their government." Besides attempting to get her tax proposal on the ballot Angle has been campaigning for the Second Congressional Seat currently held by gubernatorial front runner Jim Gibbons.
She said, "The right to petition an unchecked government has been taken away from the common man and redesigned as a tool for deep-pocketed special interests." Both Angle and Nellis vow that they will be back with another tax initiative. "I will continue to do everything possible to make lower property taxes a reality in Nevada," she said.
Nellis, sounding more than defeated and rather bitter said, "The right to petition has become the fight to petition." He continued in a press release, "Last time we tried to qualify, we were hampered severely by government officials and their employees. This time we have been harassed by special interest groups who feed off the government trough."
Most often those circulating proposals look to gather far more than the required number in order to ensure that enough will be valid. Beers says that is the case with the TASC petition. He believes he has enough signatures, but wants as many as possible for insurance. At least two referendum measures had given up gathering signatures before the June 20 deadline and their proposals will not be on the election ballot this year. The so-called Truth in Science petition, that's the one that wanted Nevada schools to lessen the teaching of evolution and teach the concept of the origin of life as written in some bibles.
The second initiative to drop out was the Prohibition of Unfunded Mandates supported by the Nevada Association of Counties. It was aimed at prohibiting state government from creating laws that local governments must adhere to but without funding the law.
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