Panel approves sales tax increase

CARSON CITY -- Clark County residents could start paying higher sales taxes in July 2011 to hire more police officers under a bill approved Tuesday by a key Senate panel.

But Taxation Chairman Bob Coffin said the state's needs are bigger than the county's and that the sales tax needs to be increased statewide by a full percentage point and enacted much sooner to bail out a state government that has been hit hard by the recession.

The bill was modified to delay possible implementation of the police sales tax increase for two years. The authorization for the tax increase had been designed to go into effect later this year.

Taxation members voted 6-1 to authorize the County Commission to approve a one-eighth of a percentage point tax increase in 2011 and another one-eighth of a percentage point increase in July 2013.

With the increases allowed in Senate Bill 202, the county's sales tax rate in 2013 would be 8 percent.

"We need to defer it so we can clear the decks for the state," said Coffin, D-Las Vegas, adding that the bill would allow the More Cops sales tax increase when economic times are better.

Coffin and panel members offered no more details about a statewide sales increase. Democratic leaders in the Senate and Assembly have refused to state what tax increases they plan to pursue until the Economic Forum on May 1 projects how much tax revenue the state will have to spend over the next two years.

Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie on Tuesday agreed to the sales tax increase delay, but added that having a set time in which sales taxes will be raised would help police departments recruit officers.

Clark County voters narrowly approved the More Cops advisory question in 2004. The measure called for two quarter-cent sales tax increases to pay for an estimated 1,700 new officers among the five police departments in the county.

State lawmakers approved the measure in 2005, but required local officials to return to Carson City this year and justify the second phase of the increase, which would add $2.50 to the price of a $1,000 big-screen television and $50 to a $20,000 car.

During Tuesday's hearing, Coffin and other Democratic legislators criticized North Las Vegas Mayor Michael Montandon who announced last week that he is circulating a petition opposing a sales tax on services.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or775-687-3901.