Legislature: Democrats introduce last minute ballot questions

Assembly Democrats decided to throw napalm into their chamber two hours before the mandatory end of session Monday, introducing a 122-page bill that would put proposed business taxes on the next ballot.

Assembly Bill 582 calls for a ballot question asking voters if they want to implement the transaction tax and margins tax proposed by Democrats earlier in the session.

In a hearing behind the bar that lasted just five minutes, they recommended approval of the ballot questions and sent the measure to the floor as an emergency measure.

"Isn't it a little late to bring a bill like that?" Assemblyman Tom Grady, R-Yerington, asked.

He received no answer before the committee voted to send the bill to the floor for a vote.

That prompted the normally reserved head of the Nevada Taxpayers Association, Carole Villardo, to sharply criticize the move.

"This is bull," she said angrily after the Ways and Means Committee voted to recommend passage of the measure. "And that's a direct quote. Give me a break."

After reviewing the measure for a few minutes, she said it appears to be the original transactions and margins tax plan introduced earlier in the session and extensively amended after hours of hearings and work.

"Introducing a 122-page bill with two hours left in session ...," said Minority Leader Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka. "Bottom line is the bill is DOA at the governor's office. You can't do this."

The move resulted in hastily called caucuses by both parties as the clock continued to move toward 1 a.m. Tuesday when, according to the Nevada Constitution, the session is finished.

After caucusing, Republicans returned to the floor to announce that the Democrats had decided to withdraw the bill amid complaints from their own caucus as well as the Republican members.

A couple of Democrats reluctantly confirmed that.