Progressive group: Voters won’t get to weigh in on mining tax

Nevada voters won't get a chance to decide whether mining companies should pay more in taxes to support state services, a progressive political group disclosed Monday.

The Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) announced it won't be able to gather the 97,000-plus signatures it needs to get a mining tax question onto the 2010 ballot.

In an e-mail, Bob Fulkerson of the alliance told supporters: "The number of signatures required, 97,000-based on voter turn-out in 2008, was unprecedented. Additionally, the mining industry and other anti-initiative forces succeeded in the last legislative session in adding complicated hurdles to the signature-gathering process."

The initiative, called the Nevada Fair Mining Tax Initiative, would have asked voters to change the tax on net proceeds from mines to a tax on gross proceeds. It also would have asked them to change the 5 percent cap on the net tax to a 5 percent floor on the gross.

PLAN says such a change could generate hundreds of millions of dollars annually that could be used to support schools and other social services.

Mining industry leaders say it represents a 300 percent tax increase that unfairly targets one type of business and would put miners out of work.

PLAN had until Tuesday to gather the necessary signatures. Had the group been successful getting the signatures to put the question on the ballot, it would have had a shot at passing, according to statewide polling.

An April poll by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research showed 40 percent of likely voters supported and 37 percent opposed such a change. Twenty-three percent were undecided.