Poll finds Nevada residents don't want state to take local funds

LAS VEGAS -- A poll found that almost three out of four Nevada residents don't want lawmakers to plug the state budget deficit by taking funds from local governments.

However, just under half said the state could shift responsibility for some state services to the local level.

With Gov. Kenny Guinn and the Legislature considering ways to cover a two-year, $700 million dollar state budget deficit, the statewide poll for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and reviewjournal.com found only 14 percent of state residents favored diverting local tax revenues to the state.

Another 14 percent were undecided. The survey of 625 registered voters was conducted last weekend by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research of Washington, D.C. The sampling error margin was 4 percentage points.

Forty-nine percent of respondents said the state could shift responsibility for some services currently provided by the state to local governments, while 35 percent said they were opposed and 16 percent were undecided.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said he didn't think the public would tolerate the state siphoning funding that pays for services like public safety. He said he'd prefer to have the Legislature shift responsibilities to the city.

Clark County Manager Thom Reilly said child welfare was a joint county-state government function that might be shifted entirely to the county. He said the county was vulnerable to having to bear the cost of such "unfunded mandates."

No tax shift proposals have been introduced during the first two weeks of the Legislature, but officials said they may be part of a deal in the final days of the 120-day session.

But Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, suggested late last year that the budget shortfall could be narrowed if future property taxes were diverted to the state.

Shifting the distribution of taxes would require a majority vote, while tax increases need two-thirds support from legislators.

Assemblyman Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, led an unsuccessful attempt two years ago to divert motor vehicle tax money from local governments to the state for a teacher pay raise. He said he thinks voters might support a money shift if it would pay for education.

Lobbyist Dan Musgrove, who represents Clark County, said the state tax structure needs an overhaul, and that taking money from local governments would only shift the problem.

Musgrove said he didn't think voters endorsed unfunded mandates, because the poll question did not address funding.