How Nevada politicians violate the state constitution’s taxpayer protections

Las Vegas Review-Journal ^ | January 12, 2017 | Victor Joecks

[VegasVictor]

Legislators have been skirting the Nevada Constitution to pass tax increases for 20 years, and it’s time to expose their scheme.

They’re violating the Gibbons’ Tax Restraint Initiative, a voter-approved constitutional amendment that requires the support of two-thirds of lawmakers (or a majority vote of the people) on any bill that “creates, generates, or increases any public revenue.”

Nevada’s local governments already can’t raise taxes unless the Legislature approves first. That should provide state taxpayers with a double firewall against local tax increases.

But big government worked out an end-around. After the initiative went into effect in 1996, the Legislative Counsel Bureau, which provides legal advice to legislators, argued that if politicians punted their authority to a local government board on a particular tax, the bill wouldn’t require two-thirds support.

[rellimpank]

—your columns are an interesting addition to the R-J but I still miss Vin Suprynowicz-—

[scrabblehack]

I’m not inclined to click the story, but are these “unfunded mandates?” Or do the local governments have the option of raising the tax or not?

Is the option of not providing the service ever considered?