Tax compromise proposed in Senate

With time running out and the state budget in limbo, Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford has proposed an amendment to the tax bill aimed at satisfying Republicans’ conditions and securing their votes.

Horsford, D-Las Vegas, said that the provisions in the proposal weren’t necessarily his preference but he put them forward because meeting the deadline is too important to let it get hung up on partisan bickering.

“It is more important to fund the budget than to continue to disagree in this chamber,” Horsford said.

Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, had said Republicans wouldn’t support the $781 million in tax hikes without a clause ensuring that the increases expire in two years. Horsford’s proposal includes that “sunset” clause and creates a commission to study revenue sources over the next two years.

Speaking on the floor, Raggio said he was concerned the commission was not quite how he had wanted it. The Senate currently is recessed while Republicans study the new amendment.

The Legislature hopes to pass the bill by 5 p.m. to deliver it to Gov. Jim Gibbons before his office closes for the three-day weekend. Once the tax bill passes the Senate by a two-thirds supermajority, it must go to the Assembly for approval.