Joe Aguirre

Gov. Jim GibbonsGov. Jim Gibbons will appear before a two-member panel on Sept. 11 to review an ethics complaint filed against him charging he used his position to pressure a local official to give him a tax break on a parcel of land he owns in Elko County.

The panel will look at all evidence in the case and either dismiss the complaint, or pass it along to the entire state ethics commission.

State Democrats filed the complaint against Gibbons last month after Elko County Assessor Joe Aguirre told a reporter he felt tacit pressure from Gibbons to reclassify the parcel to qualify it for lower tax rate.

Proving that it is the little scandal that could, the tax break controversy between Gov. Jim Gibbons (R-Sparks) and Elko County Assessor Joe Aguirre heated up today with an ethics complaint filed against Gibbons by the Nevada Dems.

Politicker's Daniel Trudeau has it covered on the front page.

It is going to be painful watching Jim Gibbons take two years to figure out that he is finished.

Will he go quietly and step aside for another GOP'er to run, or will he stick around and guarantee success for Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid (D-Henderson)?

The Nevada Democratic Party has filed a complaint with the state Commission on Ethics over a tax break Gov. Jim Gibbons'
requested and received from the Elko County Assessor's office, the Associated Press is reporting.

The request stems from news reports last week stating that Gibbons sought to reclassify a tract of undeveloped land he owns in Elko County as agricultural, reducing his tax burden from $5,000 to $15 thanks to a tax break for farmers and ranchers.

Elko County Assessor Joe Aguirre told the AP last week he felt pressured by Gibbons, a fellow Republican to grant the request, a statement which Gibbons' lawyer decried in the Las Vegas Sun on Saturday.

For his part, Gibbons welcomes an investigation from the ethics commission.

"The governor has not in any way pressured the assessor to do anything," Gibbons spokesman Ben Kieckhefer told the AP. "He did nothing wrong, and any investigation will show that."

That's not how the state's Democrats see it.

Gibbons "pressured and prevailed upon a longtime public servant who sought only to apply the laws of this state fairly and accurately," Travis Brock, executive director of the Nevada Democratic Party, said in the complaint, according to the AP. "This is both unethical and unbecoming of the highest executive officer of the state."