State Assemblywoman Sharron Angle began circulating her ballot initiative Friday, hoping to enact a Proposition 13-style property tax in Nevada.

Angle, R-Reno, who is running for Congress in the 2nd District, said her initiative is needed despite the Legislature's action this year to cap residential property taxes at 3 percent and commercial property taxes at 8 percent.

"What we have is unconstitutional," Angle told about 50 supporters at Sun City Anthem in Henderson as she kicked off the campaign for the Angle Property Tax Restraint Initiative. "The constitution requires taxes be applied fairly, and there's nothing fair about what we have."

The petition seeks to amend the state's constitution to create the Proposition 13 tax system. Angle's group must gather 83,184 signatures by June to qualify for the 2006 ballot. If it qualifies and passes, it will be on the ballot again in 2008.

"We're on our way to property protection in Nevada," said Angle, the lone no vote against the property tax reform enacted in Carson City this year.

The initiative would roll back taxes to the 2003-04 value, permitting future increases to whichever is less -- the rate of inflation or 2 percent. A new assessment at 1 percent of the value would occur when the property is sold. A new assessment would not occur if the property is transferred as part of an inheritance or if an owner aged 62 or older sells the property to buy a lower- priced property.

Angle spent much of the kick-off meeting encouraging the seniors in the room to download her petition and circulate it.

"Tell people this is a petition for California Prop. 13," she said. "People understand that."

Angle said she wants to collect 160,000 signatures to ensure the measure qualifies.

Fable West, a Sun City Anthem resident, said a recent community meeting of 400 people shows just how important the property tax issue remains for seniors on a fixed income.

"We had eight people who said nothing," he said. "The rest said get active."

The political action committee We The People Nevada is raising money and circulating the petition. But it is Angle who is the public face of the initiative.

She is expected to hold another event launching the initiative in Reno today.

Angle is touting her tax restraint initiative as one of three initiatives important to "property protection."

"We need not only property tax restraint but we need to rein in government spending and we need to ward off judicial activism," Angle said.

Another initiative, filed with the Secretary of State's office and going through a 30-day challenge period, would prohibit the taking of property by eminent domain for a private use. The third initiative, Tax and Spending Control, seeks to create a Colorado-style Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Organizers plan to file that initiative later this year, seeking to cap government revenue and refund any surpluses. The measure may also require a supermajority, or two-thirds vote, by voters to enact any tax or bond issue.

Many seniors at the event took notes and vowed to gather signatures for all three.

Joan Patrick said she supported the goal of the property tax initiative, but expressed concern about requiring a two-thirds vote on bond issues.

"I think there has to be some kind of escape that says you have to pay for public safety and education or the courts are going to overturn you," Patrick warned Angle.

Opponents of the property tax initiative said Friday they believed a large coalition will form to challenge the measure, arguing it has inhibited California's ability to fund construction of schools and infrastructure.

"Do we really want a fire department shrunk down to the size of a bathtub?" asked Paul Brown, Southern Nevada director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada. "Anyone who's looked at it will see it's shortsighted. People on the far right just want to starve government without funding essential services."

Some groups have already taken positions on the initiative.

Angle's coalition includes Mark Warden of the Nevada Policy Research Initiative and Richard Ziser of Nevada Concerned Citizens. Ziser said Friday the state Republican Party, of which he is co-chairman, will decide whether to support it at its meetings next weekend in Reno.

Democrats are opposed to the measure and the Nevada Taxpayers Association has also come out against it, arguing that capping property taxes will simply force government to raise other taxes and levies to make up the difference.

A representative of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce attended the kick-off Friday, but said the chamber has yet to take a position on the measure.

All of the five announced gubernatorial candidates have expressed some level of opposition.

State Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, said the Tax and Spending Initiative is more important to pass. Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt and Congressman Jim Gibbons, also Republicans, each said they have "strong reservations."

Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said she will not sign the petition or vote for it if it qualifies.