Newsroom

Vucanovich and Dini to lead opposition to Teachers’ Union Tax Grab

Former seven-term Republican Congresswoman Barbara Vucanovich, the first woman to be elected to a federal office in Nevada, and Democrat Joe Dini, who served the most sessions as Speaker of the Assembly in Nevada history, will co-chair a bi-partisan group called Nevadans Against the Tax Grab in a campaign against the teachers’ union proposal to amend the Nevada Constitution to dramatically increase gaming taxes.

Vucanovich said, “We’re calling the teachers’ union proposal what it is – a tax grab. It’s designed by one special interest group to benefit its own members, at the expense of rural communities and our state economy. It would funnel hundreds of millions of tax dollars into teachers’ pockets without performance standards or accountability, and without any proof that it’s improving the education of Nevada children.”

“This extreme proposal is bad for Nevada and especially bad for rural counties,” Dini said. “It would impose a 44 percent increase on both Las Vegas casinos and small rural casinos. It could force many small casinos from Pahrump to Fallon to Elko right out of business. On top of that, the teachers’ union idea would lock a new school funding formula into the state constitution that would give rural schools much less than the fair share they get under the current state law and would handcuff the Legislature from providing emergency financial help to the state when it needs it. I can’t think of a worse idea.”

Dini said he and Vucanovich are urging voters, businesses and organizations in rural Nevada to sign up as members of Nevadans Against the Tax Grab and to encourage voters not to sign the teachers’ union petition.

“Since the teachers’ union recently started circulating petitions to put their tax grab petition on the ballot, we need Nevadans to pay attention and to not get hoodwinked,” Vucanovich said.

Interested voters can join online by logging on to the group’s website at www.NoTaxGrab.com.