Why is Nugget Project ballot question "advisory"?
Submitted by admin on Mon, 06/04/2012 - 10:35am
Since posting the City Center aka Nugget Project ballot question on Friday, I've had several calls about why the question is advisory.
After all, according to Nevada Revised Statutes 377A.030, the Carson City Board of Supervisors must seek a majority vote of the people to implement the quarter cent sales tax to fund the project. So why is it advisory?
The question the supervisors will discuss on Thursday reads:
CARSON CITY BALLOT QUESTION NO. 1. This question is advisory only: Do you support an increase in the sales tax in the amount of 1/4 of 1 percent for the purpose of designing, constructing, operating and maintaining of a Knowledge and Discovery Center library and public plaza park on lands donated to the city by the Hop and Mae Adams Foundation?
Many comments to me brought up the V&T advisory question from years past, where the supervisors at the time decided to ignore the vote of the people and proceed with the project anyway.
But the story this time around is more complicated. City Manager Larry Werner said this is due to the likely success of the petition by citizens to put another question about the City Center project on the ballot.
Werner told me that they want to avoid anything like the V&T vote, and that the combination of the petition question and NRS requirements for the sales tax increase will ensure that the voters will decide this project's fate.
Here's how it works. Werner said they are assuming the petition effort to collect the necessary signatures will be successful. That could lead to two somewhat-conflicting questions on the ballot at the same time.
The question from the petition reads:
The people of Carson City, Nevada do enact as follows: "No public funding shall be used for the proposed Carson City Center Project (commonly known as the Nugget Economic Development Project or the Nugget Project) without a majority vote of the people approving such funding."
Werner said that if the petition is successful, the supervisors have the option to adopt this as an ordinance, giving the petitioners what they want without putting it on the ballot. That would leave only the one question on the ballot, pending approval by the board on Thursday.
If the petition question is adopted as an ordinance, then it would restrict the supervisors from approving the project without a majority vote of the people. The proposed advisory question would meet that standard.
So, if the people vote no on this advisory question, it would appear that there will not be a repeat of the V&T ballot question controversy. If the advisory question fails, the ordinance would restrict the supervisors from using public funds to proceed.
Werner said that making the question advisory gives the supervisors latitude on the other side of the equation. If voters approve the question, the supervisors could come back and say no and not implement the tax increase, in the event that something happens with the project that makes it unfeasible. For instance, if the Adams Foundation were to sell the Nugget land to another party, the city would not be obligated to move forward with the project, since it's an advisory question.
But, they would not be free to use public funds on the project if voters say no, barring some unforeseen legal action to the contrary.
- Board of Supervisors
- Carson City
- Carson City Board of Supervisors
- adopt
- ballot question
- carson
- Carson City Nevada
- center
- City
- City Center Project
- Controversy
- Development
- Economic Development
- event
- foundation
- Free
- FRIDAY
- funding
- giving
- Hop and Mae Adams Foundation
- Legal
- Nevada
- News
- nugget
- nugget project
- party
- public
- sales
- sales tax
- sell
- Supervisors
- Support
- tax
- vote
- Voters
- Library
- V&T
