Nugget Project one step closer to appearing on November ballot
The Carson City Board of Supervisors yesterday approved wording for ballot question seeking a sales tax increase to fund the Carson City Center Project, aka Nugget Project.
See the live Tweets of the meeting here.
Supervisors agreed to two important changes to the original wording released last week.
A provision that would have allowed funds to be used for operations of the new library was removed due to protests from the group that has been collecting signatures to force the issue on the ballot. One of that group's leaders, Lori Bagwell, complained that including operations funding significantly changed the scope of the project. She cited past assurances by Library Director Sara Jones that no extra money would be needed for operating the new facility.
Supervisor Shelly Aldean pushed to include wording allowing use of the redevelopment funds to help pay for the project, and to give the board flexibility to not use the entire quarter cent sales tax increase being requested.
In the end, the reworded ballot question was unanimously approved. The question now has to have pro and con statements drafted under the supervision of Carson City Clerk-Recorder Alan Glover before it comes back to the supervisors for final approval.
Supporters of the petition effort also received a legal warning shot across the bow when Deputy District Attorney Randal Munn warned them that a past Nevada Supreme Court decision involving the city of Mesquite could render the petition unenforceable. Munn said that state law gives the Board of Supervisors the authority to fund projects, and that according to the Mesquite case, an initiative petition can't take that power away.
The board can agree to voluntarily abide by the petition wording to not use any public funds on the Nugget Project without a vote of the people, according to Munn, but any future board would not be bound by this restriction.
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