The entire process of proposing and passing that room tax increase to (eventually) pay for higher teacher salaries has been an ugly one. It all started when the Nevada State Education Association unwisely dropped a plan to increase the top tier of the gross gambling tax in favor of a 3 percentage point increase in the room tax, which would bring in much less revenue but was easier and more politically palatable.

Only three casino companies signed on, with the rest opposed. But even that plan fell as the union decided to only try to get an advisory question on the ballot in three counties. It passed in the two most populous, Clark and Washoe.

The Assembly last month passed it relatively quickly, but the hearing in the state Senate on Monday was ugly. Very ugly.

At the hearing, senators opined about the measure, with the always-entertaining Maurice Washington saying the teachers union had “hijacked this process.” Really, senator? They may be guilty of having really low expectations of the process, and not forging ahead with the gambling tax, but “hijacking”? It seems to us the process worked exactly the way it was supposed to work. Others, including Majority Leader Steven Horsford, expressed reservations about the way the tax came to the Legislature.

Nobody, to our understanding, stood up to say that if the Legislature had done its job properly and instituted a more fair, more sensible tax system years ago, then teachers wouldn’t have to go around begging voters for cash via initiative. We’re just saying.

But, ultimately, the state Senate voted 16-5 to pass the measure. (Hat tip to my colleague Anjeanette Damon for the quick blogging.)

Now comes word from my colleague Jon Ralston that Gov. Jim Gibbons will not actually sign the measure, but will let it become law without his signature. That’s right: Although the governor said repeatedly that he would sign the room-tax measure, he actually won’t. Why? Well, in case you haven’t heard, he hates taxes.

Hey, governor, we know you’re afraid of the wrath of Chuck Muth and the Americans for Tax Reform anti-tax pledge you signed, but you realize that it says you pledge to veto all taxes, right? Letting a tax become law without your signature when you could have stopped it with a veto is pretty much the same thing as signing it, in the eyes of the anti-taxers. So not only have you broken your promise to them, you’ve also gone back on your oft-given word that you’d sign this particular tax bill because it had the support of the people!

Oh, and all those lawmakers — especially Republicans — who went on the record supporting this tax increase? Yeah, you pretty much screwed those guys, too.

So, let’s review: Gibbons has pissed off anti-taxers, all state residents who believed him when he said he’d sign the bill and Republicans who stuck their necks out on taxes, believing that, since the governor already put the tax revenue in the budget, he’d sign it and give them some political cover. Why, it’s a hat trick!

But hat trick isn’t the word! How does it go? Cluster … bomb? No, that’s not it. Cluster …