LAS VEGAS -- The I-Team has learned a plan to fix up Clark County schools will move forward. A judge refused to grant an emergency injunction that would have stopped a property tax initiative by the school district.
Clark County School District officials say they have a plan to fix broken-down classrooms, but first, they must overcome a highly political and well-funded opposition.
Clark County School District officials say classrooms are falling apart. Plumbing, roofs and air conditioners are in need of repairs.
The district proposed a November ballot measure that would raise property taxes on homeowners. The Nevada Policy Research Institute sued claiming officials broke the open meeting law when they met to come up with the tax increase. A judge disagreed after CCSD made its argument.
"I don't mind a group -- a political group coming in and voicing their opinion -- but I certainly mind them jeopardizing the schools and taking an issue off the ballot for people to decide," CCSD attorney Dan Polsenberg said.
"First of all, NPRI is not a political group, it's a non-partisan organization," NPRI attorney Jacob Hafter said.
He was a former Republican attorney general candidate. He says the organization's board of directors made the decision to sue.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, NPRI's self-described "non-partisan" board of directors donated $555,000 exclusively to Republican candidates and groups over the past four years. The center had no records of any NPRI board member donating to a Democratic candidate or group.
"We have no problem with the public being allowed to vote on a particular issue. The bottom line is, if you're going to move something forward to the ballot, you've got to do it in a way that's compliant with the law," NPRI President Andy Matthews said.
NPRI plans to appeal. If that appeal fails, ballots being printed now will have that property tax measure this November.
