The supporters of the Tax and Spending Control initiative -- the proposed constitutional amendment that would limit state governments' annual budget increases to a rate that does not exceed inflation and population growth -- have turned in more than enough signatures to qualify the measure for November's ballot.

But the game has just begun.

Some opponents of TASC allege irregularities and will almost certainly go to court if the petitions are certified. This is not surprising. Polls show healthy popular support for the initiative, so those who favor the unlimited expansion of the public sector realize their best shot of killing a spending cap rests with sympathetic judges.

Indeed, it is revealing how far some will go to prevent the electorate from casting an up-or-down vote on the issue -- and not just in Nevada.

The Associated Press reports that, "Organizers of a petition drive aimed at capping state spending in Nebraska are suing three cities, alleging they have been obstructing the effort and interfering with free speech."

In their zeal to quash spending caps, according to the allegations, officials in Omaha, Lincoln and Grand Island -- three of the Nebraska's four largest cities -- have tried to stop petition supporters from gathering signatures in public parks, on sidewalks and streets, and outside public facilities.

Sound familiar? Similar tactics were used in 2004 against petitioners in Nevada seeking to drum up support for proposals to ban public employees from serving in the Legislature and repeal record tax increases passed by lawmakers in 2003.

And those circulating TASC petitions in Las Vegas this month had to fend off members of a public employee union-backed group hoping to intimidate voters into not signing.

California voters recently turned down a state budget cap. Colorado voters this year temporarily suspended their decade-old spending restriction. Despite this, devotees of big government remain apoplectic that taxpayer activists in perhaps half a dozen states, including Nevada, Maine and Nebraska, may succeed in convincing voters to turn off the spigot -- and that the spending restraint movement could spread throughout the country.

Thus the desperate tactics employed by these powerful special interests.