Cyndi Loza

A revised petition to raise $250 million for K-12 education by increasing Nevada gaming taxes was filed Thursday by the Nevada State Education Association.

The wording of the teacher union petition was changed by a judge after the Nevada Resort Association challenged the initiative last year, particularly the specific earmarking of how the money should be used.

Lynn Warne, president of the association, said the petition’s intent remained the same.

The proposal would raise the gross gaming revenue tax by 44 percent for casinos handling more than $1 million a month. That would increase the tax rate from 6.75 percent to 9.75 percent.

“The gaming tax in the state of Nevada is the lowest in the world,” Warne said. “They can easily manage (what) we’re looking for.”

The proposal would provide about $250 million a year for elementary and secondary education among state school districts for teacher salaries and improved student achievement, she said.

“K-12 eduction in the state of Nevada has been woefully underfunded for years,” Warne said. “It was an easy decision for us to continue to move forward with the initiative.”

Supporters need to file at least 58,628 voter signatures by May 20 to get on the Nov. 4 ballot. It would need voter approval in 2008 and 2010 to increase the tax.

Some officials aren’t sure the initiative is the right way to raise money for schools.

“I certainly don’t question the need for NSEA to do what they want to do,” said Paul Dugan, Washoe County school district superintendent. “I’m just not convinced that this is the way to go about how to meet that need.”

Dugan said the union should not focus on a sole industry to solve the public education money dilemma.

“I think we all have to be part of the solution to this funding problem and I think when you focus on one industry that may not be the best way to go,” Dugan said.

Washoe County has been working with a Legislature-mandated committee to find ways to raise money for school construction and repairs, hindered by the 3 percent limit on annual property tax increases imposed by the Legislature.

Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, D-Sparks, said she opposes making tax decisions through initiative petitions.

“I think it’s a narrow way to do business,” Smith, vice chair of the Assembly Education Committee. “You basically make an up or down vote on one option.” Educators and lawmakers should look at more than one route to generate money for K-12, Smith said.

Last month, former state Supreme Court Justice Miriam Shearing deleted from the NSEA petition a section that said at least 60 percent of the funds generated by the tax should be used for teacher pay, benefits and incentives.

Shearing said the earmarking of funds amounts to “log rolling,” or relying on a more popular element of an initiative to get a less popular element approved, and leaving the section in the plan would violate a requirement that initiatives be limited to a single subject.

With the section deleted and the plans’s description amended to reflect that, Shearing said the initiative will be legal.

The petition is similar to one filed by NSEA in 2001 that sought to impose a 4 percent tax on the profits of all Nevada businesses making more than $50,000 a year. That question was taken off the ballot by the Nevada Supreme Court for violating a law that confines an initiative to one subject.