Legislature overrides veto of tax package

The tax package in SB429 became the first bill vetoed by Gov. Jim Gibbons to be overridden by both houses of the Nevada Legislature.

The compromise bill was worked out by a bipartisan negotiating group to fund the state budget. It is projected to raise $781 million during the biennium.

The primary revenue generators in the bill are a 0.35-percent increase in the sales tax and a near doubling of the Modified Business Tax. Both of those increases are to sunset in two years.

In short order and with little debate, the Assembly joined the Senate in overriding the Authorizations Act, which contains all the non-general fund money in the state budget and the state employee pay bill. That bill imposes a furlough on state employees and reduces funding for teachers and university employees.

For those three measures, the governor's vetoes have now been rejected.

In addition, the Assembly voted to override five Assembly bills making up different parts of the budget, sending those measures to the Senate for its vote on whether to reject the governor's vetoes.

The Senate, however, delayed voting until today. Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, said they would be considered along with some of the 20 other measures Gibbons has vetoed.

The vetoes the Assembly overrode are:

- AB562, the Appropriations Act, which contains $3.88 billion in General Fund expenditures;

- AB563, which appropriates $2.79 billion to fund the public school budgets;

- AB146, the business portal bill;

- AB552, which increases the state's allowance for collecting and distributing sales tax revenue to the counties;

- AB543, which takes a portion of property taxes from Clark and Washoe counties and broadens the permissible uses of the governmental service tax.

Republicans James McArthur of Las Vegas and James Settelmeyer of Douglas County said the middle of a recession is the wrong time to increase taxes on business. Members of the GOP had argued during negotiations the increase should be more on the sales tax and less on the business tax.

Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, responded by telling members Nevada is not a dictatorship.

"One person does not get to decide our state's destiny," she said.

Assemblyman John Carpenter of Elko broke the tension by telling members: "I've been talking to the Lord and the Lord says it's still OK to vote for this."

The vote to override was 29-13 with Carpenter the only Republican joining the majority.

Other members of the Republican caucus voted against the taxes even though half of them had just finished voting for the budget bills spending the money the tax plan would raise.

Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka, and Joe Hardy, R-Boulder City, said they voted against the tax plan not because higher taxes aren't necessary but because they believe the burden should have been on sales taxes, not the business tax. They said their constituents favored the sales tax.