'AX THE TAX' EFFORT: JUDGE DELAYS TAX DECISION

Ruling on Referendum's Constitutionality Not Needed If It Lacks
Signatures to Make It on Ballot

CARSON CITY -- District Judge Bill Maddox postponed deciding Monday
whether the "Ax the Tax" referendum is unconstitutional, preferring to
wait until a survey determines whether the petition has any chance of
qualifying for the Nov. 2 ballot.

During a 90-minute hearing, Maddox was told by Deputy Attorney General
Vicki Oldenburg that the referendum will fall about 700 signatures
short of the required 51,337, even if previously disqualified
signatures are counted.

Maddox said he will not have to decide whether the referendum is
constitutional if the referendum lacks the signatures to be placed on
the ballot. He asked Oldenburg to forward him results of the new
survey as soon as it is completed, probably by Wednesday.

"It is going to be very, very close," Oldenburg said of the signature
total.

Secretary of State Dean Heller ruled Friday that the referendum to let
voters decide whether to throw out the $833 million tax increase fell
4,548 signatures short of the minimum requirement.

But the referendum's leading advocate, Nevadans for Sound Government
Chairman George Harris, said about 4,000 signatures of newly
registered voters were improperly rejected.

His organization has joined the Committee to Control and Regulate
Marijuana in appealing a lower court decision that voting registrars
should not count these signatures. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals has told lawyers that it intends to make a decision in that
case by Sept. 7.

Oldenburg, however, said Heller decided on his own to ask county
clerks and election departments to go back and compute the number of
signatures of newly registered voters that were not counted.

She said 2,745 of these signatures were rejected in Clark County and
an estimated 1,061 in Washoe County. Few were disqualified in rural
counties, according to Oldenburg.

Regardless of what the survey finds, Nevadans for Sound Government
lawyer Joel Hansen intends to appeal Heller's decision to the courts.

"We are not going to give up," said Hansen, a Supreme Court candidate.
"This is a fight. We want to make sure voters have an opportunity to
vote on the taxes."

Oldenburg and county clerks have said they need legal issues resolved
quickly in order to print ballots. Hansen noted that Sept. 23 is the
day that they must send general election ballots to Nevadans in the
service overseas.

Maddox heard Nevada Taxpayers Association lawyer Thomas "Spike" Wilson
give reasons Monday why he thinks the anti-tax referendum is
unconstitutional and should be denied a spot on the ballot, regardless
of signatures.

Wilson maintained the state constitution required circulators of the
referendum to give citizens the "full text" of the laws they want
repealed. He added the constitution also prohibits the repealing of
the taxes because that would create an unbalanced budget.

"The petition has to contain the full text so people can understand
what they are signing," he said.

But Hansen declared the tax increase approved by the 2003 Legislature
was heavily publicized and few people did not know they were signing a
petition to repeal the record increase.

He added it would be an unconstitutional burden on their First
Amendment right to petition the government if they had to include the
156-page law with petitions given citizens. He said the very "weight"
of carrying around stacks of the law would have been a burden on
circulators.

He also secured an admission from state Budget Director Perry Comeaux
that the budget could be balanced if the public rejects the tax
increase through a 15 percent across-the-board cut in state agency
spending.

Comeaux said the state would have to cut only between $70 million and
$230 million through the remainder of the fiscal year that ends June
30 because of unexpected high tax receipts from Nevada's economic tax
boom.

If legislators were concerned about the hole created in the budget by
passage of the referendum, then Hansen noted there was nothing to
prevent them from going into session "the next day and passing the
taxes again."