While the governor appears to be going wobbly on his Tax Pledge, he need not be the taxpayers’ only defense. Recall that the largest tax increase in Nevada’s history back in 2003 was initially blocked by 15 Republicans who refused to vote for it - until the Supreme Court ruled that the 2/3 requirement in the state’s Constitution didn’t mean what it said and Assemblyman John Marvel buckled and changed his vote.
So to keep Gov. Gibbons from possibly signing a tax hike “if it’s backed in a public vote,” taxpayers need to get 15 members of the state Assembly to also sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge and thereby block any such tax hikes from even making it to the governor’s desk.
Alas, only ten current members of the Assembly have signed the Pledge - and two of them are Republicans who are not seeking re-election and another one is a Democrat who has consistently broken his pledge at just about every opportunity. So Nevada taxpayers hoping to keep the possibility of Gov. Gibbons signing a tax hike bill need to focus on electing at least eight additional members of the Assembly who will promise to vote against any and all efforts to raise taxes.
Of course, it would help immensely if five current Republican incumbents who have yet to sign the Pledge would do so. Those who have not yet promised taxpayers to protect them from tax hikes are: Assembly Minority Leader Heidi Gansert, Assemblymen Pete Goicoechea, Tom Grady and Joe Hardy, and Assembly-psycho Francis Allen.
Meanwhile, new Assembly candidates have begun filing their own Taxpayer Protection Pledges. They include Eric Smith, James Kroshus and Michael Nance who are all running in District 32 in northern Nevada and Ron Lonotin who is running in District 31 against tax-happy incumbent Democrat Bernie Anderson.
We will again be posting the names of candidates who sign the Pledge this campaign season on our website at www.copacnevada.com.
Any candidate running for any office in Nevada who wishes to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge - which has been sponsored for over two decades by our good friends over at Americans for Tax Reform - can do so by clicking HERE. Then fax your signed and witnessed Pledge back to ATR at (202) 785-0261 and to us at (775) 522-3925.
Posted on May 22nd, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada
Leave a Reply