Petitions to cap LV agency funds rejected

By BRENDAN RILEY

CARSON CITY -- Two proposed ballot petitions to cap revenue for the Las Vegas convention authority and a third plan to restrict tax-raising ballot questions were rejected Friday by Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller.

Miller's decision followed challenges of the proposed ballot questions by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and the state AFL-CIO.

The questions were backed by Las Vegas Sands Corp. owner Sheldon Adelson.

The secretary of state sided with the critics' arguments that the affidavits of petition-circulators lacked a required statement of the number of signatures and also lacked a required statement that each signer had a chance to read the full text of the plans prior to signing the petitions.

Scott Scherer, attorney for the petitioners, said Miller's order was being studied and no decision had been made yet on whether to appeal. Any appeal would be filed in Carson City District Court.

Each proposal needed a minimum of 58,836 signatures to qualify for the November ballot. Scherer had said the two revenue-cap plans each had more than 111,000 signatures while the plan to restrict any tax-raising ballot questions had nearly 123,000 signatures.

In his two-page order, Miller said county clerks and registrars couldn't verify any of the signatures because of the flaws. Based on those determinations, he said the petitions "failed to substantially comply with statutory and constitutional requirements."

The proposed restriction on tax-raising ballot questions would mandate a two-thirds vote of Nevadans, instead of a simple majority, to approve any tax-raising proposals. It would have to be approved by voters this year and again in 2010 before it could take effect.

Under the revenue-cap plans, voters would cast ballots this year and in 2010 to decide whether to revise the Nevada Constitution so that some Clark County room tax revenues could be reallocated.

The convention authority would receive its current allocation of about $200 million per year, plus annual increases to cover inflation. Any funds above that amount would be forwarded to the state's distributive school fund under one petition, or be split among schools, transportation and law enforcement programs under the other petition.

The shift would only apply to room taxes in Clark County around Las Vegas.

Besides the secretary of state's review, the state Supreme Court will consider the petitions at a July 1 hearing. Petition opponents appealed to the high court after advocates of the plans won favorable lower court rulings.