Initiative qualifies in county

CARSON CITY -- An initiative petition pushed by state Senate candidate Sharron Angle to put a property tax cap in the state constitution has enough signatures in Clark County to qualify for the ballot, an official said Monday.

The measure has also succeeded in Carson City and Washoe and Esmeralda counties.

Angle said her biggest concern was qualifying in Clark County, so success there was great news.

"We were only concerned really about Clark," Angle said. "The petitions in Clark were a little light.

"I guess I'm guardedly optimistic," she said. "Every time we get a winner it gets us one step closer."

Angle said if the tax cap limitation makes it to the ballot, past polling suggests strong support.

The petition must qualify in all 17 counties before it can be placed on the November ballot, and a review is under way. But it has, by a close margin, survived a check in Clark County.

Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said a random check of 5 percent of the signatures turned in by Angle and her group, We the People Nevada, gives the group just enough valid signatures of registered voters to qualify.

Angle needed 40,364 signatures in Clark County. The 5 percent review showed she had 40,571 valid signatures. The results have been reported to the secretary of state's office.

The petition needs a total of 58,628 signatures to qualify statewide, and 83,600 were turned in.

But it also must contain a minimum number of signatures in each county.

Other counties were still in the process of checking the signatures on Monday. The results aren't due to the secretary of state's office until next week, but some counties have already finished the count.

The raw count of signatures shows more than enough in all 17 counties if the signatures are found to be from properly registered voters in those counties. In Washoe County, Angle turned in nearly 16,000 signatures and she needed just under 10,000.

The law requiring signatures in all 17 counties, passed by the 2007 Legislature, is being challenged in U.S. District Court, however.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada and several citizen activists filed the challenge, arguing the new requirement is unconstitutional and is worse than a previous requirement for gathering signatures in 13 of the state's 17 counties. The 13 county rule was found to be unconstitutional in a previous federal court decision.

A new ruling tossing out the 17-county requirement could help Angle's chances of getting her measure, styled after California's Proposition 13, on the Nevada ballot in November.

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.

If placed on the ballot and approved by voters, the measure would have to pass again in 2010 before it could take effect.