Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

PROPERTY TAXES: Legislature fails to find consensus

Leaders to discuss issue again on Thursday

CARSON CITY -- Legislative leaders huddled with staff behind closed doors Tuesday to build a consensus on how to deal with rising property taxes by March 31, but the two-hour meeting produced no concrete results.

Instead, legislative leaders from both parties and both houses will meet again Thursday to gather more information on how various property tax proposals would affect homeowners, local governments, schools and the state budget.

After the meeting, state Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said she will wait at least until after the Thursday meeting to introduce her bill proposing a freeze on property tax increases for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

The leadership meeting came as state Sen. John Lee threw his proposed property tax solution into the mix, calling for a 4 percent cap on tax increases for each of the next two years. Lee, a North Las Vegas Democrat, also wants a $20 million fund drawn from surplus state revenue to assist any local government harmed by the cap, particularly rural governments.

Lee's cap proposal would limit property tax increases on new construction, thus avoiding one of the constitutional concerns about the property tax cap proposals floated thus far. The constitution requires property taxes be "uniform and equal."

"Four percent would get us through the next two tax years," Lee said. "What we really have here is a short-term solution for a long-term problem to get us through this point so we can move forth into the next biennium."

Lawmakers interviewed after the leadership meeting gave several reasons why the information was presented privately instead of publicly in the state Senate Taxation and Assembly Growth and Infrastructure committees.

"At this point ... it's about what would be the impact on the state, what would be the impact on (the schools), what would be the impact on bonding," Titus said. "If we were talking about what's the solution, I would say absolutely it's not a fair thing to do (to meet behind closed doors). Everybody should be part of that debate."

Another attendee, Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, said leaders need more data before trying to reach a consensus on how to provide property tax relief, especially for Southern Nevada homeowners who face property tax bill increases of 20 percent to 50 percent on July 1 if the Legislature fails to act.

"We don't have all the numbers ... to make a credible decision," he said. "Once we get the information then we can take it back to the rest of the legislators and have hearings."

Perkins said the reason for the closed leadership meetings is so overworked legislative staff can present information in a focused way and not get deluged with requests from individual lawmakers.

State Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, raised that issue in comments earlier in the day on the state Senate floor, telling the public that staff has been working around the clock to find a solution that is constitutional, provides relief for taxpayers and does not harm the ability of local governments to provide services. Raggio said a number of proposals don't meet those three criteria, and staff was told to focus on a couple of proposals that appear to provide relief while complying with the state constitution's "uniform and equal" requirement.

While supporting the efforts to find a consensus, other lawmakers said leadership discussions should not result in a single answer to the property tax issue being presented to the Legislature and public for rubber stamp approval.

"What I do not want to see happen ... is for a small group to come with a proposal and then just present it to this body as though it were a fait accompli because that is not a good way to make policy," Titus said during the state Senate floor discussion.

State Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, agreed, saying the long hours of work by the tax committees over the past four weeks should not be ignored. Coffin, a member of the Taxation Committee, was not included in the leadership meeting.