News - December 27, 2017 - by Ray Hagar

By Ray Hagar
Nevada Newsmakers

State Sen. Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas and a candidate for the Clark County Commission in 2018, said he wants to enact a one-percent sales tax increase in Clark County to bring in $400 million annually to the Clark County School District.

He said on Nevada Newsmakers that he's got a legislative plan to do it by cutting out Northern Nevada's "don't tax me" Republicans from the process.

"We just need to cut ourselves loose from Northern Nevada and their 'don't tax me, don't tax me' mentality and deal with reality," Segerblom said this week. "We have huge problems that need huge solutions and we have people who are willing to pay to fix it."

Segerblom said his plan would first need approval from the Nevada Legislature and has a way bypass the two-thirds vote requirement in both houses for any tax increase.

Segerblom's bill could pass by a simple majority if the bill does not raise taxes but allows the Clark Commission to do so, he said.

A similar bill was passed in 2013, allowing the Washoe County Commission to decide on a proposed Washoe-County-only tax increase to help with school construction and maintenance.

"I've gotten an opinion from LCB (Legislative Counsel Bureau) Legal that says the Legislature, by majority vote, can approve or authorize the Clark County Commission to impose a sales tax," Segerblom said. "And then the Clark County Commission, by a majority vote, can enact a sales tax. And that is the only way, in my opinion, that we are ever going to get a bit of money. It would stay here in Clark County and it would go to our needs."

Since Clark County lawmakers make up more than 70 percent of all State Senate and Assembly members, Northern Nevada legislators would not be needed pass the tax bill.

"The fact is that the biggest problem I see in Nevada in terms of the Legislature and my life in politics, is that we have this new two-thirds requirement which means that basically, Northern Nevada has a stranglehold for anything we do to raise taxes," Segerblom said.

When Nevada Newsmakers host Sam Shad countered that Northern Nevada is not anti-tax if there is a specific need for a new tax, Segerblom shot back:

"You go down to Carson City and you find me one Republican senator or an assembly person (from Northern Nevada) who will vote for a tax increase," Segerblom said.

"They (Northern Nevada Republicans) all have been on your program. And you can ask every one: 'Do you support raising taxes for schools? Would you support raising property taxes? Will you support business taxes? Do you support any other tax?

"And the answer -- other than 2015 when Republicans were going crazy -- is no," Segerblom added. "We just can't live with that."

The 2015 Legislature, with GOP majorities in both houses, passed the largest tax increase in Nevada history -- about $1.4 billion -- after urging, deal-making and arm-twisting by Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval.

"The great thing is that Clark County has the majority of the legislators," Segerblom said. "So with a majority vote and the governor's signature, of course, we can enact a tax so we can start that process."

Segerblom praise the education students can get in Clark County, noting that he and his children attended Clark County district schools.

"My mother was a school teacher (in Clark County)," Segerblom said. "My kids are a product of the school system."

Yet the Clark system is stacked against students in poverty, he said.

"If you go to the really poor areas, especially in Clark County, you will find that the newest teachers teach there, they have the biggest classrooms and they have the least resources," Segerblom said. "And they teach the people with the most needs because a lot of them are English-language-learners. Some have all kinds of family issues."