Tax petition organizers ask Heller for more time

Organizers of a petition to repeal the 2003 tax package made a last-ditch appeal Tuesday to Secretary of State Dean Heller asking him to give them what the Supreme court wouldn't - an extension.

Tuesday was the deadline for collecting signatures to put the tax repeal question on the November ballot.

The Nevada Supreme Court on Monday rejected a request to give them more time than allotted by Nevada statute.

The court ruled they should have first filed in district court to resolve whether they were actually prevented from gathering enough names by interference with signature gatherers.

The group Nevadans for Sound Government - headed by Las Vegas Republican George Harris and backed by the Independent American Party - claims interference at the state's Department of Motor Vehicles offices, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus and Reno's Citifare bus station are to blame for their inability to collect the more than 50,000 signatures needed to put the question on the ballot.

As of the 5 p.m. deadline for filing the petitions, no extension had been granted. Heller's chief deputy, Renee Parker, said the time period for petition gathering and the deadline is specified in Nevada law and she doesn't believe Heller's office has any authority to grant an extension.

The group is still circulating a petition that would ask voters to bar public employees from serving in the Nevada Legislature. They have until June 15 to qualify that measure for the November ballot.