Supreme Court tells taxpayers 'tough luck'

Take a flying leap, fellow Nevadans.

That's what your Supreme Court told you on Thursday, when it ruled the Legislature could go ahead and raise taxes without a two-thirds majority vote.

The logic behind the court's ruling is tortured and tangential, not to mention just plain wrong. And the fact it throws out the wishes of Nevada taxpayers, who twice voted to impose the two-thirds majority, shows a disdain for Nevada residents that -- if there is any justice -- should get them voted out of office on election day.

A majority of the Supreme Court -- Deborah Agosti, Bob Rose, Miriam Shearing, Myron Leavitt, Nancy Becker and Mark Gibbons -- decided a constitutional requirement the Legislature fund the state's education programs outweighs the requirement for a two-thirds vote to raise taxes.

So they ordered the Legislature to ignore the two-thirds requirement.

Here are a few of the reasons the court is off base with this ruling:

-- Nobody in the 16 or so briefs filed in the case asked it to throw out the two-thirds requirement. It pulled this solution out of thin air.

-- The constitutional passages are not in conflict. Yes, the Legislature must fund education. But at what level? Who should be taxed? By what date? Justice Bill Maupin, in his lone dissent, points out the Legislature still has at least two weeks to work before the court decides to emasculate the state constitution.

-- If the court's logic says a two-thirds majority is too steep a requirement in order to fulfill a constitutional mandate to fund education, what would happen if the Legislature couldn't find a tax plan that satisfies even a simple majority? Would the court then say a tax plan that gets 45 percent of the vote is OK? Forty percent? The likelihood is slim, it's true, but the logic of the court doesn't hold up.

The opinion written by Agosti notes Nevadans' popular votes to impose the two-thirds majority came in prosperous times, but says the state "now faces an unprecedented budget crisis." It's this fiscal crisis, she concludes, that gives the court authority to act.

Apparently, Agosti hasn't been following the debate in the Legislature. The 15 Assembly Republicans who keep voting "no" are doing so because they believe Nevadans can't afford to pay for the largest tax increase and budget in history during these financial hard times.

Take a flying leap, Nevadans. Your Supreme Court just decided to change your constitution in order to raise your taxes.