By: Las Vegas Now Staff
Rejecting pleas from lawyers for major Nevada casinos, a judge on Thursday endorsed a revised petition from a teachers' union that would raise Nevada gambling taxes to provide about $250 million a year for public education.
Former state Supreme Court Justice Miriam Shearing, who's handling the Carson City District Court case, rejected arguments by the Nevada Resort Association that the revision of the Nevada State Education Association petition didn't comply with her earlier order to avoid “logrolling,” or relying on a more popular element to get a less popular element approved.
Attorneys for the clubs had argued during a hearing Tuesday that the revised petition shouldn't go on the November ballot because it still violated a requirement that initiatives be limited to a single subject, the lawyer argued.
But Shearing wrote that imposing an additional gambling license fee and designating the funds for school salaries and student achievement “is functionally related.” The judge added that the
initiative is “neither confusing nor misleading.”
“In interpreting initiatives, this court is required to make every effort to preserve the initiative power of the people,” Shearing said. “In other words, this court must interpret an initiative so as to preserve the power of the people to vote on it.”
NSEA President Lynn Warne said she was “very gratified by the judge's decision. We said from the beginning that this was a delaying tactic on the part of the gamers.”
“With the decision today we're going to be moving full steam ahead to put this question on the ballot in November,” she added.
To qualify for a spot on the ballot, petition backers must gather at least 58,628 signatures by May 20. Voters would then have to approve the measure in the 2008 and 2010 elections.
Bill Bible, head of the resort association, didn't immediately return a call seeking comment on whether an appeal to the state Supreme Court is planned.
During Tuesday's court hearing, an attorney for the teachers argued that the initiative's revised wording met the judge's earlier mandate and the casino industry was doing everything it can
to keep the tax question from voters.
The revised petition removes, among other things, specifics such as a requirement that said at least 60 percent of the funds generated by the tax be used for teacher pay, benefits and incentives.
Both the old and the new proposals would raise by 3 percent the gross gaming revenue tax now paid by casinos making more than $1 million a month. That would increase their tax rate from 6.75 percent to 9.75 percent.
Warne has said the rate would still be among the lowest casino tax rates in the world. But attorneys for the clubs said the plan amounts to a 44 percent increase in taxes on the clubs.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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