Silver Dollars & Wooden Nickels: The voters have spoken on term limits

The Nevada Appeal’s Silver Dollars and Wooden Nickels feature recognizes achievements from the capital region and, then warranted, points out other acts that missed the mark.

SILVER DOLLAR: The Carson City Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 on Thursday to move forward with a potential sales-tax increase. There was talk earlier in the day about the vote being delayed to allow the supervisors to gather more information, but the proposal of an eighth-of-a-cent tax hike has been kicking around long enough. The increase needs to either happen or not happen, and we’ll likely know more in a couple of weeks, when the board is expected to take final action.

SILVER DOLLAR: The state Supreme Court voted 5-2 to prevent two Reno City Council members from running for mayor. The reason: each has served 12 years on the council, the maximum allowed by the state Constitution. The high court was asked to consider how fundamentally different the Reno mayor’s position is from the other council positions, and it essentially ruled that it isn’t different enough to justify allowing council members to extend their tenures by becoming mayor. Carson City Mayor Robert Crowell, a lawyer, said the ruling likely would apply here as well because of the similarities between Reno’s and Carson City’s charters. Which is how it should be. Nevada voters have spoken very clearly when it comes to term limits, and elected officials shouldn’t be able to use a loophole to continue being a voting member of a council beyond their allotted time.

SILVER DOLLAR: Carson High School graduate Josh Growth, a chief warrant officer 2 in the Nevada Army National Guard, was among two groups of guardsmen who returned to Nevada a week ago. His family and others held signs welcoming them home at Reno Tahoe-International Airport in a touching scene. They’ve now been home a week after a 10-month deployment; we hope the adjustment is going smoothly and thank them for their service.

SILVER DOLLAR: Carson Mall’s parking lot is abuzz in construction activity. It’s an exciting reminder of what’s in store for our mall, which will look very different in a year. Bealls announced Monday that its 20,000-square-foot outlet at the mall is set to have a grand opening April 24. It’s gratifying to watch the once-ailing mall regain its luster.