Angle withdraws tax-limit petition

CARSON CITY -- Responding to objections from the AFL-CIO, former Assemblywoman Sharron Angle agreed Monday to withdraw her petition to limit property tax increases to 2 percent a year in Nevada.

The Reno Republican said the union wanted her to change "minor stuff" in the 200-word summary to the petition and she intends quickly to file a new petition with the secretary of state.

"What they wanted doesn't change the intent of the petition," Angle said of her agreement with the union.

But it marks the fourth time she has failed to get her petition on election ballots. In October, Angle withdrew a similar petition to avoid litigation with the AFL-CIO. Twice previously she failed to collect enough signatures to put the matter before voters.

The withdrawal brought the cancellation of a scheduled hearing today in district court in which the AFL-CIO formally would have challenged the wording in the petition's summary.

Angle's petition is patterned after California's Proposition 13, which limited property tax increases to 2 percent a year after voters approved it in 1978. To place her petition on the November ballot, she must collect 58,836 signatures by May 20.

Danny Thompson, AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer, said the agreement does not mean he won't later file additional litigation over the petition. He said the union wants first to examine any new petition she files.

"We are opposed to what they are trying to do," he said. "They want to change the (Nevada) constitution, and what they are doing would make the housing crisis worse. Right now you can't give away houses in Las Vegas."

Thompson said Angle wants to amend the state constitution and change the "uniform and equal" taxation clause, which states that similar property must be taxed at the same rate. Angle's petition would create an exception to that clause.

Property still would be taxed equally and uniformly until it is sold to a new buyer. Then the property would be taxed at the new cash value.

That could lead to situations where homebuyers pay several times the amount of property taxes as do longtime residents in the same neighborhood, Thompson said.

"This would only exacerbate the housing problem," he said.

In previous interviews, Angle has noted that the U.S. Supreme Court in 1992 upheld the constitutionality of California's Proposition 13.

A Southern California homeowner challenged the law because she was paying far more in property taxes than other residents in her neighborhood.

In pushing for Proposition 13, sponsor Howard Jarvis did not dispute that neighbors might pay different amounts of property taxes. His goal was to keep property taxes low to prevent longtime residents from losing their homes to high taxes.

While a 2005 state law limits annual property tax increases in Nevada to 3 percent for owner-occupied homes and 8 percent for commercial property, Angle said this law could be changed at any time by the Legislature. If voters approve her petition, the 2 percent annual increase limit could not be changed except by a vote of the people.

Unlike the Angle petition, the state law allows people who buy homes to keep the lower tax rates that have been paid by the previous owners.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or (775) 687-3901.