Shooting the messenger

Tuesday, July 22, 2008 | 2:05 a.m.

Gov. Jim Gibbons and his ever-shrinking circle of supporters have been bashing Elko County Assessor Joe Aguirre over revelations that the governor received a huge break on his property taxes.

Last year Gibbons and his wife, Dawn, bought 40 acres in rural Elko County, and the governor wanted a reduction of the property tax because he was leasing the land for cattle grazing.

Aguirre said the land didn’t qualify and said no, but he felt pressured, particularly when the governor hired Elko attorney John Marvel, who sits on the powerful Nevada Tax Commission. The commission holds influence over county assessors. Aguirre understood that and gave Gibbons the break, cutting his bill from about $5,000 to less than $40.

The Associated Press broke the story this month and Gibbons’ office has been in hyperdrive trying to contain the governor’s latest scandal.

Gibbons spokesman, Ben Kieckhefer, called the implication of political pressure “ridiculous.”

Speaking to the Las Vegas Sun’s Cy Ryan, Marvel called Aguirre “a baldfaced liar” and “yellow-bellied.”

Robert Uithoven, Gibbons’ former campaign manager, told the Las Vegas Sun’s J. Patrick Coolican that Aguirre was just “enjoying his 15 minutes” of fame and then said if Aguirre felt intimidated, he was “the wrong man for the job.”

Coolican also reported the governor’s camp was rumbling that Dawn Gibbons leaked the story. The governor is locked in a bitter divorce.

Gibbons told KVBC-TV in Las Vegas that he “never talked to that guy,” referring to Aguirre. (His staff acknowledged that he at least visited the assessor’s office.) The governor then made the audacious suggestion that he was just like any citizen asking for a legal tax break.

But he’s not, and he made that crystal clear to Aguirre. His attack on Aguirre to divert attention from his raw use of political power to gain a tax break is disgraceful. Gibbons owes Aguirre — and the citizens of Nevada — an apology. And he owes Elko County some back taxes.