Nevada Supreme Court won't advance court date for showdown over mining tax petitions
The state Supreme Court has refused to move up a court date on a case to handle mining's attempt to scuttle a voter petition drive to raise its taxes.
In so doing, the court rejected a request from the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) to move up the dates for filing briefs so it doesn't have a chilling effect on the collection of voter signatures.
Alliance attorney Tim Hay admitted uncertainty is created when a case is pending for the Supreme Court, but he doubted that the ruling will have any adverse effects on the voter petition drive. The alliance must gather slightly over 97,000 voter signatures by June 15 to qualify the initiative for the ballot.
PLAN is seeking to repeal a provision that was written into the state constitution in the mid-19th century. It limited mining's state tax liability to no more than five percent of net proceeds. PLAN wants it to be no less than five percent on gross receipts. PLAN says mining extracts billions of dollars in gold and silver from Nevada every year, yet pays nearly nothing in taxes.
Chief Justice Ron Parraguirre earlier agreed to speed up the handling of the case and ordered legal briefs be submitted during April and May. He also scheduled the full court to hear oral arguments June 7 in Las Vegas. But he declined to move the court dates up any further.
In this latest order, Chief Justice Parraguirre also directed that the complete record in district court be submitted to the Supreme Court. He said the Court has reviewed the documents on file and that a complete record is warranted.
District Judge James Wilson in Carson City ruled PLAN has the legal right to circulate its petition. The Nevada Mining Association has appealed to the Supreme Court in an effort to block it from appearing on the ballot. The mining lawyers claim the petitions are legally deficient.