A’s lobbyists push to uphold Vegas stadium funding petition halt

Oakland Athletics lobbyists Wednesday filed a brief with the Nevada Supreme Court highlighting why a decision by lower court to throw out a petition referendum aimed at reversing the team’s stadium funding bill should be upheld.

The filing, on behalf of A’s lobbyists Danny Thomas and Thomas Morley, is in response to a brief filed last month by political action committee Schools Over Stadiums, created by the Nevada State Education Association, which argued the Nov. 6 decision by a Carson City District Court judge should be reversed. That ruling halted the group’s efforts to collect needed signatures to put the matter to a public vote this year.

The A’s lobbyists filing is centered on Schools Over Stadiums not providing the full text of Senate Bill 1, the stadium funding bill, in their petition referendum.

The filing claims the petition does not meet the full text requirements of the state constitution; that the PAC altered the order of the sections of SB1 in the petition; and that the group did not describe any effects the petition would have, it just summarized the bill.

“This attempt in summarizing is lacking,” the A’s lobbyists filing regarding the description of the petition read. “By law the description must ‘explain the ramifications of the proposed amendment,’ in order to allow voters to make appropriate decisions about their support.”

The brief also claims the petition description is inaccurate, referencing wording used to describe what SB 1 is. Schools Over Stadium’s says SB1 “uses up to $380 million in taxpayer dollars,” which the A’s lobbyists point out is misleading, noting the bill could generate up to that sum and it does not receive the money via a check from the state’s general fund.

The goal of the petition is to collect 102,362 verified signatures of registered voters who voted in the 2022 general election in order to get the matter on November’s ballot for public vote. Those signatures would have to be collected by July 8 in order to get the stadium funding initiative on this year’s ballot.

Schools Over Stadiums has until Jan. 24 to submit a brief to the Supreme Court responding to the A’s lobbyists’ filing.

Schools Over Stadium’s last November also stated they planned to file a lawsuit regarding SB1, noting they saw multiple instances within the bill that violated the state constitution. As of Thursday morning, that filing has yet to be submitted.

Schools Over Stadiums weren’t immediately available for comment Thursday morning.

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.