Who Deserves a Tax Break? The Politics of Statute Affirmation in Nevada

Abstract

In 1956 Nevada voters affirmed a referendum upholding the 1955 Sales and Use Tax Act establishing a two percent sales tax. Because the statute’s affirmation removed the law from the legislature’s purview, the only way it can be altered is by a vote of the people. Subsequently, the legislature has referred nearly three dozen questions to the ballot proposing to amend provisions of the 1955 legislation. While voters have rejected most of these proposals, voters have supported exemptions that provide diffuse benefits and that target sympathetic social groups, as well as a requirement that exemptions have a demonstrable social or economic benefit. In addition to bolstering the findings of prior research that direct democracy is used to advance conservative fiscal policies, this research details how Nevada’s direct democracy institutions have limited the legislature’s taxation authority by requiring that voters decide who is and is not deserving of a tax break.