The Nevada State Teachers Association is pushing a ballot initiative that would raise taxes from 6.75% to 9.75% for state casinos pulling in over a million dollars a month.
The proposal would have to win the vote in the 2008 and 2010 elections before it could go into effect. If it did, it is estimated that it would add more than $200 million dollars a year to Nevada’s public school system.
The current budget cycle, which ends in 2009, designates $2.3 billion from the general fund for Nevada’s 17 school districts. One-third of that is funded by the casino industry.
“We have chosen to stand to make a difference and we will not quietly submit to the idea that there is nothing we can do,” said Lynn Warne, NSEA president, about the proposal.
