Angle to challenge petition rejection

CARSON CITY -- Property tax cap-proponent Sharron Angle said Thursday that she will challenge in the Nevada Supreme Court a deadline set by the Legislature for petition gatherers to turn in signatures for ballot measures as being unconstitutional.

Angle said the lawsuit, which will be filed in the next day or two, will show that the 2007 Legislature moved back the deadline to turn in signatures to a date earlier than the state constitution allows.

The deadline was set 12 days earlier than allowed, she said.

Angle's petition has run into serious problems because signatures were not accepted in Clark County by the Tuesday deadline because they came in after 5 p.m. The petitions had other problems as well and have not been accepted, making the likelihood of her measure getting to the ballot slim at best.

Angle said she wants the Supreme Court to give her more time to collect signatures for her property tax cap patterned after California's Proposition 13.

The state constitution allows petition gatherers to work until 90 days before the general election, which is Nov. 4 this year. Angle said the constitution also allows the Legislature to move that deadline back by as much as 65 days if necessary for the purpose of having enough time to verify signatures.

But the Legislature last year, even after being told the new deadline was unconstitutional, moved it back 77 days, Angle said.

"We're preparing our court filing now," the former Reno, GOP assemblywoman said. "It's time to take the Legislature to task and also to ask everyone to uphold their oath of office."

Angle said the unconstitutional deadline is just one more roadblock put in place for petitioners in violation of their First Amendment rights.

Angle's proposed constitutional amendment would limit property tax increases to 2 percent per year, rather than the current cap of 3 percent for homeowners passed by the Legislature in 2005, until a property is sold.