No ‘fair shake’ for Metro?

In one of the more ironic outcomes of the 2009 Legislature, the goulash of tax increases passed by lawmakers didn't include one that enjoyed enormous public support and had already been approved by voters.

In 2004, Clark County's electorate barely passed the More Cops initiative, 52 percent to 48 percent. The advisory question sought two quarter-percentage-point sales tax increases in Southern Nevada to fund the hiring of more officers in the decade ahead. The 2005 Legislature passed the first half of that increase. This year, law enforcement chiefs wanted lawmakers to authorize the second half.

In May, a poll conducted for the Review-Journal found overwhelming support within Clark County for the second half of the sales tax increase, with 65 percent of participants saying they would vote for the hike if it appeared on the 2010 ballot, and only 28 percent saying they wouldn't.

Some lawmakers appeared willing to go along with the increase. In passing Senate Bill 202, the Taxation Committee sought to split the increase into two eighth-percentage-point increases, one each in 2011 and 2013. But the bill died in the Finance Committee.

"I'm not happy about it," Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie said. "I don't think we got a fair shake."

In truth, well-funded, well-paid police departments were a victim of economic circumstance, not political gamesmanship. The argument that Southern Nevada forces need to be allowed to continue growing when local populations aren't failed to sway lawmakers.

The death of Senate Bill 202 also signified that even Nevada's most ardent supporters of higher taxes know they can inflict only so much punishment at one time. As part of their $1 billion tax-hike package, lawmakers raised the sales tax rate by .35 percentage points, which means Clark County residents will soon pay a total rate of 8.1 percent.

Although that increase will sunset in 2011, it would be far more instructive to find out whether Clark County voters support another quarter-percentage-point increase, especially given the likelihood that lawmakers will renew the 0.35 percentage point increase in two years. Do we really want a total sales tax rate approaching 8.5 percent?

When police appear before the Legislature in 2011, asking for the second half of their tax hike, more than six years will have passed since from the valley's vote on the issue. That's too long to consider it a mandate, given how much has changed since then. The County Commission should put a new advisory question on the 2010 ballot, asking voters to restate their position anew.