Anything for a Buck

Or $250 million bucks.

Jan 1, 2007 - The Nevada State Education Union has an initiative petition to increase gaming taxes to raise $250 million a year for public schools. It's being challenged by the gaming industry.

TT - The beauty of such ballot measures is that, if successful, they serve to eliminate the power of the legislative to determine spending on school funding. So much for representative government. Whether you agree with the priorities of the legislature, they, at least, can be voted out of office.

RELATED LEGAL DECISION Feb 18 - District Judge Bill Maddox threw out two petitions Friday that would have let Nevada voters decide whether to triple the state's 6.75 percent gaming tax.

Maddox said attorney Kermitt Waters' petitions were invalid because they would let legislatures in other states set the gaming tax rate for Nevada. He added they also violated a state law that requires petitions deal with a single subject.

District Judge Bill Maddox threw out two petitions Friday that would have let Nevada voters decide whether to triple the state's 6.75 percent gaming tax.

If Waters wanted to circulate a petition that increased the gaming tax rate to 40 percent and did not specify where the money would be spent, then that "would be fine," Maddox said.

In making his decision, Maddox mentioned that Senior Supreme Court Justice Miriam Shearing, acting as a district judge, last month threw out a Nevada State Education Association petition to raise the gaming tax rate because it also violated the single-subject law.

But the teachers union in early February filed a new petition with the secretary of state. This second petition also would increase the gaming tax rate and earmark the additional money to increase the salaries of school employees other than administrators.

A gaming industry challenge to the latest teachers' petition is expected next week.