AFL-CIO wants to keep Prop. 13 initiative off ballot

The AFL-CIO on Wednesday filed a complaint asking Carson District Court to block the latest property tax initiative from the November ballot.

The complaint, which was assigned to District Judge Todd Russell, charges that the description of effect in the initiative "is misleading, contains false statements, omits references to material provisions of the Constitutional amendment proposed ... and fails to disclose that the proposed amendment would repeal or substantially affect existing articles of the constitution and provisions of Nevada Revised Statutes."

"If allowed to stand, the description will mislead Nevada voters as to the true content of this initiative," the complaint seeking declaratory relief states.

It asks the court to rule the initiative petition, formulated around California's Proposition 13 rule, violates state law requiring the description of effect to accurately explain the effect the proposed amendment would have and that the Secretary of State be prohibited from putting it on the 2008 ballot.

The petition filed Dec. 18 by former Nevada Assembly members Sharron Angle and Don Gustavson is their fourth attempt to make California's Proposition 13 the rule in Nevada.

Gustavson said it's necessary to put the language in the constitution because he doesn't trust the Nevada Legislature not to change the caps on property tax increases imposed in 2005.

If passed, the ballot question would roll property taxes in Nevada back to what they were in 2003-04 and then allow annual tax increases of not more than 2 percent a year. But the petition goes farther than California's rule by allowing property owners 62 and older to move to a new residence and transfer the capped value of their old home to the new home.

Different versions of the same constitutional amendment in the petition have been filed in 2004 and 2006. The pair also filed a different version of the proposal in September 2007 but later withdrew it. Before that, they tried several sessions to get legislators to back the plan but were unsuccessful.

The AFL-CIO argued through lawyer Jim Penrose that the initiative goes much further than the description says, effectively repealing the "uniform and equal" requirement for property taxes in Nevada's Constitution.

It says the initiative also repeals the existing statutory caps on property tax increases and that allowing those older than 62 to transfer to a new home is a "significant loophole" in the requirement that all property be taxed fairly and equally in Nevada.

In addition, the complaint says the initiative would repeal the $5 per $100 of assessed valuation constitutional cap on property taxes in the state - also not explained in the description of effect.

The complaint charges the differences "create a very serious danger of voter confusion" and asks the initiative be barred from the ballot.

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