Heller sends Tax and Spend question to voters

Secretary of State Dean Heller certified the Tax and Spending Control initiative Friday, directing county clerks to put it on the November ballot.

"I concur with the opinion offered by Attorney General George Chanos that multiple versions of the TASC petition should not preclude placement of the circulated version of TASC on the November ballot," said Heller.

But Heller's decision really makes no difference since both proponents and opponents had already said they would go to court if he ruled against them. Public employee unions are expected to appeal to Carson District Court next week.

If made part of the Nevada Constitution, the initiative would strictly limit the growth of government spending at all levels in Nevada to no more than inflation plus population. It was modeled after the restrictions imposed by voters in Colorado a decade ago - restrictions which Colorado voters last year lifted, at least temporarily, because of severe cutbacks in governmental services forced by funding shortages. Opponents blame the Colorado spending limits for those cuts and say the same problems would occur if Nevada adopts TASC.

Opponents in Nevada led by the AFL-CIO challenged TASC organizers, saying supporters filed one version of the petition with the secretary of state but circulated a different version. They say a fiscal expert has determined the difference between the two versions would total more than $1.3 billion in governmental spending statewide. They argue voters signed a version that isn't valid and can't qualify for the ballot.

Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, who has based his gubernatorial campaign on the initiative he helped draft, said the error was a typographical mistake that shouldn't disqualify any of the signatures.

"The complaint was filled with baseless lies and was just an attempt to silence the will of the people," said Ann O'Connell, Chair of the Nevada TASC Committee.

She said opponents will do anything to keep the issue from a vote of the people.

Heller said TASC collected 125,438 valid signatures, far more than the 83,184 - 10 percent of the total turnout in the last election - needed to qualify for the ballot.

The appeal is expected to focus not only on the conflicting versions of the petition but on claims by union officials that it violates Nevada's initiative law because it deals with multiple issues and multiple articles of the Nevada Constitution. Initiatives are supposed to deal with a single, identifiable issue.

Beers has rejected that argument as well saying governmental spending is a single issue.

The court case will have to proceed rapidly since Nevada Supreme Court has mandated all challenges to ballot questions be briefed and before them by Aug. 16.

The justices plan to hear challenges not only to TASC, but to the proposal to ban smoking in most public places and one putting limits on government powers to condemn private property, on or before Aug. 23.

The justices warned in a public announcement they may refuse to consider challenges that don't meet those deadlines.

• Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.