Sandoval cautions about move to kill state tax hikes

Gov. Brian Sandoval said last week that if critics of the new commerce tax push to get their proposal on the November 2016 ballot as a referendum, voters need to know the potential consequences if it is repealed.

Several GOP officials who opposed the new tax approved by a majority of lawmakers in the 2015 session are looking at putting Sandoval’s revenue plan on the ballot for an up or down public vote.

But Sandoval said a repeal of the commerce tax and other elements of the revenue plan approved as one package in Senate Bill 483 probably would mean budget cuts. The bill is expected to raise $1.1 billion for the general fund budget. It includes a $1 increase on each pack of cigarettes.

“You’ve got to look at the other side of it,” he said. “If that is put on the ballot, then you’ve got to look at what you are going to cut. Are you going to cut K-12? Are you going to cut higher ed? Are you going to cut services to autistic children?

“That’s the part that isn’t talked about; these very important investments that we’ve made in the universities and particularly in K through 12,” Sandoval said. “The public needs to be informed of what the consequence is.”

The Legislature passed a $7.3 billion, two-year general fund budget that includes major enhancements for public education.

It also appropriated $29 million to open a new medical school at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas by 2017, among its many other provisions.

But the new commerce tax has put many anti-tax Republicans at odds with their colleagues who voted for the measure.

Because voter turnout was so low in the 2014 general election, it would not require a large number of 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.

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

HELLER WINS, LOSES

It was win one, lose one last week for Sen. Dean Heller as the Senate took up a bill to overhaul federal education law.

The Nevada Republican and Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, were pushing an amendment that would require school districts with more than 1,000 students identified as Asian-Americans or Pacific Islanders to further break down school performance data by racial subgroups such as Chinese, Vietnamese, Hawaiian and so forth.

Taken as a whole, Asian-American students seem to be doing well in school. But Heller argued in a Senate speech that the broad category “hides big achievement gaps between subgroups.” For instance, 72 percent of Asian-Indian adults have college degrees while only 26 percent of Vietnamese adults can say the same.

Heller said more detailed breakdowns would allow schools to devise strategies “to help close these achievement gaps and create an environment where all students can succeed.”

But the Heller-Hirono amendment was killed 47-50 after Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, turned thumbs down.

Alexander said the amendment amounted to a federal requirement that didn’t fit a bill that has a goal of lessening Washington influence over local schools.

He said it would set a precedent that could lead to further “country of origin” data breakdowns.

Alexander said the case for more detailed performance data “should be made to a local school board, which may do this if it wishes, or to a state board, which may make these aggregations if it wishes, but this should not be a Washington mandate.”

The outcome was different on a Heller amendment with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. Passed by voice vote, it would require state education officials to consult their governors on plans to improve schools and workforce training. A governor would be given 30 days to sign off before the plans are sent on to Washington.

Heller said governors should be assured a voice, citing Gov. Brian Sandoval as an example of a hands-on governor when it comes to education.

— Steve Tetreault

Contact Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3900. Follow @seanw801 on Twitter. Contact Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@reviewjournal.com or 202-783-1760. Follow @STetreaultDC on Twitter.