Monday, June 8, 2015

NEVADA NEWS & VIEWS 06/08/2015

Coalition proposes referendum to reverse Nevada’s big tax boost

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Gov. Brian Sandoval answers media questions about his proposed business license fee at the Capitol in Carson City, Nev., on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2015. (Las Vegas Review-Journal/Cathleen Allison)

A look at Nevada politics by the staff of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Stephens Media Washington Bureau. The Political Eye is also on Facebook and Twitter.
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
You have to give it to anti-tax crusader Chuck Muth. He never throws in the towel.

Muth, president of Nevada-based Citizen Outreach and backer of Grover Norquist’s Taxpayer Protection Pledge to oppose new tax revenue, said in a newspaper column Friday that a group called the WeDecideCoalition.com has been formed to put Gov. Brian Sandoval’s revenue plan on the 2016 ballot as a voter referendum.

“Unless I’m reading it wrong, it certainly appears our Constitution allows we, the people, to gather enough signatures to put Gov. Sandoval’s tax hike — including the creation of the new gross receipts tax — on the ballot in 2016 for an up-or-down vote,” Muth said.

Since voter turnout was so low in the 2014 general election, Muth said it won’t be that difficult to gather enough signatures to put the tax plan on the ballot. Ten percent of those who voted last year would have to sign the petition, which is about 55,000 signatures, he said.

“And unless Nevada’s business community wants to pay the millions of dollars this new gross receipts tax is going to steal from their bottom lines, they should not only join the WeDecideCoalition.com, but pony up the couple hundred thousand dollars needed to obtain the number of signatures required to put this referendum on the 2016 ballot,” Muth said.

Seven referendums have qualified for the Nevada ballot, and six were approved by voters since the process was authorized in 1908. The last time it was used was in 1990 to maintain Nevada’s current laws regarding abortion. It passed.

— Sean Whaley

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