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Between the devil and the deep Joe Neal
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-28-2013 Daily Sparks Tribune
Updated 3-9-2013—>Petition Pandering and Pondering

The Nevada teachers' business tax petition is poised to perpetrate the damndest legal scramble the state has ever seen.

The legislature has until March 15 to pass the measure verbatim or it advances to the November 2014 ballot.

For more than 100 years, petitions have been deemed passed if they win a simple majority of those voting on the issue.

It ain't necessarily so.

In 1980, Sen. Joe Neal, D-N. Las Vegas, ordered the Legislative Counsel Bureau to research a constitutional anomaly.

The result was astounding.

Neal, who taught constitutional law at Community College of Southern Nevada, caught a language quirk that also affected three other states, all of which fixed it before it became a problem.

Nevada didn't.

The crux is that Nevada's Constitution mandates that in order to win approval, ballot questions must gain a majority of all the voters voting in an election, not just between those casting votes on individual issues.

A successful action can be brought before the Nevada Supreme Court upholding Sen. Neal's very well-grounded scholarship.

If the court rules that Neal has a point, Nevada's union-busting Right-to-Work-for-Less (1952) and term limits (1996-98) laws become constitutionally invalid.

So do more than 100 others.

The research will be linked to the web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com.

It includes letters from Legislative Counsel Bureau Research Director Andrew Grose with case citations and examples of petitions invalidated by these criteria.

You may also read the 1980 letters from Nevada Secretary of State Bill Swackhamer and Legislative Counsel Frank Daykin.

Ole Swack's non-response conveyed Atty. Gen. Richard Bryan's non-response.

Bottom line: Too hot to handle. Don't bother us. Please go away.

Alas and alack, the Las Vegas MGM Grand Hotel-Casino caught fire in 1980 and Sen. Neal got sidetracked getting the 1981 high-rise sprinkler law passed over the objections of the gambling industry.

The petition issue languished until he found this research a few weeks ago and sent an inch-thick file to me.

He included a transcript from Nevada's 1864 Second Constitutional Convention in which the framers state their intent that intiatives and referenda should pass only by winning a majority of all voters voting in an election. Read it yourself.

On 8 March 1939, Nevada Attorney General Gray Mashburn sent a letter to Secretary of State Malcolm McEachin that the issue should be taken to the Supreme Court.

We're still waiting for action on Mashburn's legal opinion.

A recent Nevada Retail Association poll showed 58 percent of Nevadans in favor of the teacher's tax petition. This is nothing new in a supposedly taxophobic state.

Polls taken every two years by the Alan Bible Research Center at the University of Nevada-Reno consistently showed an overwhelming three of four Nevadans favoring an increase in the gross gaming tax. Dancing to the gamblers' tune, the legislature took care of those pesky facts by defunding the poll.

The teachers petition will probably win but only narrowly.

Should it do so, tax-avoiding corporations will have only one recourse: take it to court to blow it out under Neal's criteria.

If the Supremes uphold the current system, Nevada schools get an extra $800 million a year.

If the blackrobes opt in favor of Sen. Neal's rock-solid research and strike down the petition because it failed to convince more than 50 percent of all voters, more than 100 Nevada laws get invalidated. (Read the Andy Grose memo to Neal.)

Either way, average citizens greatly benefit. A positive Catch22.

Joe Neal would not have it any other way.

GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE DEPT. —> In his biennial address to a joint session of the Nevada Legislature, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Searchlight, called on lawmakers to repeal the state's term limit law.

RENDER UNTO CÉSAR. César Chávez Celebration XI happens on the evening of March 28 at Circus Circus-Reno.

For tickets and sponsorship info, go to CesarChavezNevada.com/

Prices increase as the event nears.

HONOR YOUR DON. Keep sending comments supporting legendary Nevada photographer Don Dondero (1920-2003) for the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame.

His life's work appeared worldwide, including this newspaper.

Enlist in the campaign to install Big Don.

Please send me your memories and endorsements via e-mail or to P.O. Box 10034, Reno NV 89510.

The Barbwire got the late RGJ columnist Guy Richardson elected last year.

Let's go for a repeat.

BARBWIRE.TV. Support the return of community TV to these parts.

If last year's elections didn't convince you of the need, the 2013 legislature certainly will.

Join up. You may donate at ReSurge.TV or contact me.

This is important. Thank you.

VOTE FOR THE LUCKY 13, the most powerful Nevadans of 2013. Send nominations to <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us>

Last year's rogues gallery will be linked to the expanded web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com/

LET'S GET IT ON. E-me to get on the Barbwire News bulletin list for information not filtered through corporate lenses.

I broke a bushel of major stories last year which the above lead item will very probably top. Blowing out more than a century of Nevada law in one swell foop doesn't happen every day.

Turn on, tune in and tell a friend.

Be well. Raise hell.

____________

Andrew Barbano is a 44-year Nevadan, chair of the Nevada César Chávez Committee, producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration, first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP, labor/consumer/civil rights advocate, member of Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO and editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. Check local listings for other Nevada cable systems. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Daily Sparks Tribune since 1988.

Smoking Guns... Ignorance of the law is no excuse "It is clear in my judgment that the amendment process in our constitution requires a majority of voters in an election...To adopt a contrary view...is to permit a constitutional provision to be added by a minority of voters. "An example: If you had an election where a hundred thousand people voted for two candidates for governor and three voted on a constitutional question, two for and one against, the question would become part of our constitution with just two people voting for it. It was never intended by the framers." — Letter from State Sen. Joe Neal, D-N. Las Vegas, to Secretary of State William J. Swackhamer, 2 April 1980. Neal's example is the same as that used in discussion of the provision by the framers of the state constitution in 1864. Sen. Neal's research calls into question large swaths of Nevada law, some of which has been on the books for more than a century. The crux is that Nevada's Constitution mandates that in order to win approval, ballot questions must gain a majority of all the voters voting in an election, not just among those casting votes on individual issues. Here are summaries of the content with links to the documents at Sen. Neal's website. THE SMOKING GUN —> Sen. Neal's letter of 2 April 1980 to Secretary of State William Swackhamer challenging most of the initiatives and referenda passed since Nevada's admission to the union. It includes a list of legal citations, some of which may be found in the following titles. (4280 ltr) LEGISLATIVE LAWYER MEMOS —> Two letters from Legislative Counsel Bureau Research Director Andrew Grose with case citations and examples of petitions invalidated by these criteria. (1980 lcb) TELL PONTIUS PILATE TO PASS THE TOWELS —> April, 1980, letters from Nevada Secretary of State Swackhamer and Legislative Counsel Frank Daykin. Ole Swack's non-response conveys Atty. Gen. Richard Bryan's non-response. The Daykinism advice falls somewhere between non-sequitur and incomprehensible. Translation: Don't bother us. Too hot to handle. Please go away. (4380 dayswack) Alas and alack, the Las Vegas MGM Grand Hotel-Casino caught fire and Sen. Neal was sidetracked getting the 1981 high-rise sprinkler law passed over the objections of the gambling industry. This issue languished until he found this research a few weeks ago and sent an inch-thick file to me. Sen. Neal never forgets. WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY THINKING? PRETTY DAMNED WELL, IT SEEMS —> Transcript from Nevada's Second Constitutional Convention in 1864, underlined emphasis added and referenced in Sen. Neal's 2 April 1980 letter to Secretary of State Swack. There is no doubt that the framers intended that petitions must win a majority of all voters voting in the entire election, not just on the ballot question itself. (Convention) THE CONTROLLING LAW —> Statutes of Nevada 1901: "No. XI. — Senate Joint and Concurrent Resolution amending the Constitution of the State of Nevada by adding an article thereto." (Approved 19 March 1901.) Section 2 of the latter reads: "When a majority of the electors voting at a State election shall by their votes signify approval of a law or resolution such law or resolution shall stand as the law of the State and shall not be overruled, annulled, set aside, suspended, or in any way made inoperative except by the direct vote of the people. When such majority shall so signify disapproval the law or resolution so disapproved shall be void and of no effect." Sen. Neal says this remains the controlling statute. The state constitution regarding initiative and referendum was amended at the polls by adding Article 19 in 1904 (Sections 1 and 2) and Section 3 in 1912. However, neither gained a majority of all voters voting in either election, so 1901 still rules and it unequivocally mandates a majority of all voters voting. (1901 SN) Adios right-to-work-for-less, term limits and whole bunch else. This house is condemned. Tear it down and start over. 1980 WAS INSTANT REPLAY —> The 8 March 1939 opinion of Nevada Attorney General Gray Mashburn states that the issue should be taken to the Supreme Court by the Nevada Secretary of State. We're still waiting. (1939) Like his timid predecessors (Malcolm McEachin-1939 and Swack-1980), I rather doubt that current SOS Ross Miller II will have an appetite for something important rather than facilitating voter suppression in order to suck up to righteous right-wing moonhowlers. Any and all comments welcome. I will forward the best to Sen. Neal. Be well. Raise hell. Andrew Barbano   ...and more ammo... Petition pondering & pandering: Just Say No, a Nevada tradition CLINGING TO THE LEDGE—>Do the Nancy Reagan thing Just say no and invalidate term limits and right-to-work-for-less in the process Barbwire by Barbano / Special Online Abstinence Edition / 3-5-2013 An edited and updated version appeared in the 3-7-2013 Daily Sparks Tribune We Don't Need No Education The continuing series The Post-Dated Recession: Pay me now or pay me later Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-6-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune The Post-dated Recession By Joshua H. Silavent / Daily Sparks Tribune / 5-3-2011 Union decline and rising inequality in two charts by Colin Gordon Economic Policy Institute / 6-5-2012 Used in journalist Mark Robison's extensive Hard Labor: Nevada unions tout role in helping workers, firms, economy (Sunday 2 Sept. 2012 Reno Gazette-Journal, page one, Reno Rebirth section of the print edition). Union men Jim Burrell, Paul McKenzie and Guy Louis Rocha did the movement proud. Not included in the RGJ online edition. WOMEN AND UNIONS — ORPHAN MAJORITIES The Barbwire Labor Day column Reno Gazette-Journal / 9-3-2012 Nevada Press Assn. Better Newspaper Contest HAT TRICK: Barbwire takes first place three years in a row. The winning entries Suing for Schools: The 20-year shuck Expanded from the 2-21-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune Click here to view the show on your desktop RED flags flying low over Sparks Expanded from the 1-10-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune The wrath of self-righteous racism Expanded from the 11-8-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune Government contacts Nev. congressional delegation Nevada Legislature State of Nevada Secretary of State Carson City Clark County City of Las Vegas Douglas County Reno City Council Sparks City Council Washoe County Commission Washoe Registrar of Voters The campaign against forcibly-paid newspaper obituaries And they wonder why the newspaper business is dying?   The Dean's List    The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites. RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006 The 2009 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners Tony the Tiger & the flaky NFL Barbwire / 11-30-2008 Deregulation is never having to say you're sorry Barbwire / 8-3-2008 Nevada: A good place to visit, but do you want to live here? Barbwire / 6-15-2008 The 2008 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners The price of a piece / 6-17-2007 Boxing Pandora /9-23-2007 The Lady in the Red Dress 10-28-2007 1997 Pulitzer Prize entries ...and more ammo yet Barbwire Corporate Welfare Archive Barbwire Corporate Propaganda Archive Cabellyup.com

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Copyright © 1982-2013 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 44-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee, He is producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and serves as first vice-president, political action chair and webmaster of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

Barbwire by Barbano moved to the Daily Sparks (Nev.) Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since.
How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.

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