Teachers union circulating petition to raise education funding with business tax
CARSON CITY - The Nevada State Education Association has begun to circulate its petition to levy a business tax to raise money for education, although a new legal challenge could lead to any signatures being declared invalid.
People who want to sign the petition can visit the teachers union office at 3511 E. Harmon Ave. in Las Vegas. The proposal would impose a 2 percent business margins tax that would raise as much as $800 million a year for public education.
A leader of the union was not surprised Friday that a group of business organizations filed a challenge to kill the Education Initiative.
"This is a last-ditch, desperate effort to prevent Nevada voters from having the opportunity to sign the initiative and place the issue of education funding before the Legislature," said Gary Peck, executive director of the education association. "It is apparent the members of this group don't care about improving the economy and, more importantly, education in Nevada."
Peck predicted that the petition will withstand the legal challenge and that the signature-gathering effort will be allowed to continue.
The union must collect 72,234 valid signatures by a Nov. 13 deadline. If it does, then the Legislature must consider adopting it early in the session next year.
If the proposal is rejected, then it would be placed before voters during the 2014 election.
Josh Hicks, the lawyer for the Committee to Protect Nevada Jobs, filed the latest lawsuit to stop the tax petition in Carson City District Court earlier this week.
Less than three weeks earlier, District Judge James Wilson had ruled that the first Education Initiative petition violated a single-subject rule.
The following day, the teachers union made changes that he requested and filed a revised petition.
A national Kids Count study in July ranked Nevada 50th in public education and among the worst states for children's well-being.
The Committee to Protect Nevada Jobs consists of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, the Retail Association of Nevada and other business groups.
Contact reporter Ed Vogel at
evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.
