CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) -- Faced with a historic revenue shortfall, Nevada lawmakers balanced the budget by raising several state taxes -- and also by approving a "tax grab" of existing levies that had been going to local governments.

Representatives of cities and counties, who faced serious shortfalls of their own, lobbied against it, but there was little they could do to stand in the way.

That's because the counties and cities are governed by state law, and any change they proposed would have to be approved by legislators.

The biggest blow came with the passage of AB543, which takes property taxes from Nevada's two largest counties, Clark ncompassing Las Vegas and Washoe which takes in Reno.

The original plan in Gov. Jim Gibbons' budget proposed redirecting 4 cents of every $100 of assessed property value from the counties to the state.

In a hearing on the bill, Clark County lobbyist George Stevens asked a money committee to consider an alternative, to impose a tax for capital improvement projects. He said the levy, which amounted to 5 cents of every $100 of assessed property value, would bring in more money for the state and would be less painful for counties that could find other ways to fund those projects.

The legislators liked the idea -- so much that they decided to take both the 4-cent levy proposed by the governor and the 5 cents that Stevens had suggested as an alternative.


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