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In business taxes voters will decide on margins tax in 2014 By Andrew Doughman staff writer CARSON CITY — Deciding to raise taxes is now your choice, Nevadans. A 2 percent margins tax on businesses will head to your ballot in 2014, and it's slated to raise about $800 million for primary education in Nevada. The Nevada Legislature took no action within the 40-day limit it had to pass or reject the measure, meaning Nevada voters now get to play policymaker and vote the margins tax up or down. "I don't believe the votes are there," said Assembly Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas, about the initiative measure. Legislators of both parties never warmed to the tax on businesses that make $1 million or more per year in revenue. The Legislature gave the tax a show hearing in which its sponsor, the state teachers union, trotted out supporters who cheered for the tax. Business groups booed. But the margins tax initiative petition never made it out of committee, and nobody brought any emergency measures to the Senate or Assembly floor to pass or reject it at the last minute because Democrats would not bring it to a vote. "It's going to the people either way," said Sen. Debbie Smith, D-Sparks. "I'm focused on solving our problems so that we have education funding for the coming school year, not down the road." The teachers union, which usually aligns with Democrats, would have been "upset" if the tax was voted down, said Craig Stevens, lobbyist for the Nevada State Education Association. With the margins tax guillotine hanging over their heads, a group of six Republican senators who virulently dislike the margins tax proposed an alternative tax on the mining industry this past week. The state constitution allows for the governor and Legislature to put a competing measure on the ballot, meaning voters could have two tax choices, and whichever one wins more votes would become law. But the constitution lacks clarity on the process for placing an alternative on the ballot, and a key question remains as to whether the Legislature must explicitly vote down an initiative petition like the margins tax before its members can introduce an alternative. 20130401_VI10_F.indd 10 3/28/13 2:54:55 PM