Proposition 13 initiative appeal dismissed

Sharron Angle's last-ditch Supreme Court appeal over the removal of her Proposition 13 style tax amendment from this year's ballot has been dismissed.

The dismissal came in a one-paragraph order issued by the court Wednesday and states that each party will bear its own appellate fees and costs.

But Mike Dyer, lawyer for the Nevada State Education Association, said the district court will have to deal with the costs the education association incurred in those proceedings.

"We're definitely asking them to pay our costs, and those costs are quite extensive because of all the documents that had to be copied," he said.

The stack of copied documents was nearly as tall as Angle when they were presented in the Virginia City Courthouse during that hearing.

The challenge demanding the initiative be removed from the ballot was granted by Senior Judge Charles McGee after two days of hearings. He ruled Sept. 8 that at least 8,000 and possibly 11,800 signatures were invalid because of errors made by the petition gatherers. He ordered the question taken off the Nov. 4 ballots.

We the People Nevada attorney Joel Hansen filed an appeal, but they gave him 45 days to come up with better legal arguments. Dyer said in mid October Hansen instead proposed a stipulated dismissal of the appeal, which the Supreme Court formally filed Thursday.

The case was remanded to district court to resolve how much should be paid in court costs.

This is the fourth attempt Angle and Assemblyman-elect Don Gustavson have made to impose a version of California's Proposition 13 on Nevada. Each time they failed to get on the ballot either by not collecting enough signatures or making other errors in the process, which different courts ruled fatal to the petition.

The proposed constitutional amendment would severely reduce property taxes and then limit annual increases to just 1 percent a year.

The teachers union opposed the plan, arguing it would cripple Nevada's school system.

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