Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Proposition 13-style tax limits fuel discussion

Jon Coupal, executive director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association in California, speaks to the Nevada Policy Research Institute about that state's Proposition 13 on Tuesday. Photo by Shelly Donahue

The director of the California taxpayers group spawned by Proposition 13 said Tuesday the climate might be right in Nevada to try a similar tax limit measure.

Jon Coupal, executive director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, instructed a group of conservative business and political operatives just how they should go about such an initiative even though the Legislature might have taken some of the wind out of the movement's sails by capping residential and business property taxes.

"Whether or not you can reach critical mass here in Nevada again, I really don't know," Coupal said during a Nevada Policy Research Institute luncheon at the Las Vegas Country Club.

Assemblywoman Sharron Angle, R-Reno, has vowed to launch an initiative drive mirroring California's 27-year-old voter-approved proposition. The majority of state lawmakers say a new law capping increases in assessed property values at 3 percent for residents and 8 percent for businesses is enough to mollify property owners.

But those attending the institute's luncheon decried the new property tax law as unconstitutional and asked for advice on how to roll back taxes further.

Al Kingham, a commercial real estate broker, asked whether an initiative limiting government expenditures, something like the proposed Taxpayers Bill of Rights, could accompany a Proposition 13-like initiative.

"Constitutional amendments limiting taxes are much easier than expenditure limitation," Coupal said.

Proposition 13, which passed in 1978, rolled back California tax rates to 1976 values and capped future increases to 2 percent a year unless the property changed hands.

The initiative movement was fueled by public unrest over tax bills that had increased more than 50 percent.

Kenneth Record was a school board member in Santa Clara County, Calif., at the time of the movement and was a rare education official who supported the initiative.

"Just remember how popular your cause is," Record, now a Nevada resident, told the other 20 attendees at the luncheon. "The people are with you; don't be put down."

While Record directed his comments to the Nevada Policy Research Institute moderator, Mark Warden, Warden asked the leader of another conservative group if an initiative was likely in light of the recent legislative action.

"I don't think there's anyone who doesn't think it's unconstitutional, but you're a dead man if you challenge this one now," said Richard Ziser, vice chairman of the state Republican Party and an active member in Nevada Concerned Citizens.

Kingham said he was not sure that a tax limit measure could pass.

"I don't know if it could actually occur here in Nevada," he said. "We need to start with a limitation on spending."

Coupal advised that Nevada proponents of a Proposition 13-style initiative should "overlawyer this to death."

"Let everybody look at it, including your enemies," Coupal said. "You need to know where they're going to shoot holes in it."

Coupal also advised proponents to work with the business community to build broader support.