TMT Discussion Forums

2009 Legislative impacts on Washoe County

2009-06-19T15:50:50Z

Legislative Impact
• In any legislative session, Washoe County tracks about half of the bills introduced as they have some kind of impact upon our operations.
• AB 543 probably had the most impact on us this session. This legislation redirected 9 cents each from Washoe and Clark County’s property tax rates to the state. A portion of these revenues (about 22% in Washoe) will be taken from the cities within Washoe and Clark counties.
• The Legislature also imposed an additional 1% sales tax collection fee on us and redirected another 2.5 cents of property tax currently dedicated to our indigent medical funds to go to the state.
• For Washoe County, this is a total loss of about $15 million per year, or $30 million over the biennium.
• Having just implemented some severe spending reductions, including wage reductions and layoffs, meeting this new deficit is going to be challenging.
• Even if desired, the County Commission cannot increase our property tax rate since it is currently at the cap of $3.64 cents per $100 of assessed value.
• The 3% property tax cap legislation passed in 2007 limits the amount that a taxpayer’s property tax bill for their primary residence can increase. This means that the most that property tax revenues can increase is about 3%; next year we anticipate revenues from property taxes will go DOWN by 3.5% because the property values that rates are applied to are going down. For 2010-2011, property tax revenues are projected to go down further by 7-10%.
• Washoe County has forgone 30 cents worth of possible tax rate increase over the past years, but the current rate is comprised of any rates other entities have implemented (called an overlapping rate) and is at the max allowed by law.
• Clark County does have capacity to increase their property tax rate.
• The Legislature passed enabling legislation that would allow the County Commission to impose an additional one cent Government Services Tax for vehicle registrations in an effort to make up some of the lost revenue. For Washoe County, this would generate about $9.8 million per year but Commissioners are mindful of the impacts of the current economy on citizens and are not enthusiastic about raising taxes to offset Legislative action.
• The County Commission will consider staff recommendations on how to address this new deficit at their 6/23 meeting. It is anticipated staff will recommend careful use of restricted savings to offset these losses, thus increasing future risks, but this may be unavoidable. The County Commission wants to avoid further service cuts and staff reductions if possible.
• Key message: Redirecting county property tax revenues to the state will reduce Washoe County’s revenues by $30 million over the next two years. Given the severe budget cuts we’ve recently made, this is a difficult challenge.

Reno Citizens Institute

2008-08-06T08:49:06Z

Apply for the Reno Citizens Institute 10-week fall program before August 29th. Get more info at http://www.cityofreno.com or call Reno Direct at 334-INFO (4636).

Making the Connection: Civic Engagement and Voter Turnout

2008-06-23T16:32:55Z

It has always fascinated me when people talk about taxes. Most people hate taxes but expect the services and infrastructure they provide. Sometimes the debate goes to taxing “business” instead of “people”. That makes we wonder if anyone realizes that business IS people: owners, managers, customers and vendors. Ultimately, when such debates occur it shifts to the “them” vs. “us” or “government” vs. “the people”. It has been a long time since my civics class at St. Joseph’s High School in South Bend, Indiana in 1965 but seems to me that another thing we forget is that the government IS (we) the people.

So why all this disconnect? Could our traditionally, relatively low voter registration and turnout have any connection? If you don’t vote, do you have a right to complain? Of course you do, but it doesn’t seem right. With all we continue to fight for to keep our freedom – and how hard people of other countries fight to get the right to vote – it seems a giant waste that so many of us don’t vote. That’s why I agreed to serve on The Advisory Committee on Participatory Democracy (ACPD).

The ACPD was created within the Office of the Secretary of State pursuant to NRS 225.240. The committee consists of 10 members including the Secretary of State or his designee and nine other members appointed by the Secretary of State.

The purpose of the Advisory Committee is to assist the Secretary of State in identifying and proposing programs that support participatory democracy and solutions to any problem concerning the level of participatory democracy.

Our focus for the coming election is to try to stimulate two key groups to register and vote: Youth & Business. Hopefully, the heightened interest in the presidential election will help us, but we are eager for new ideas.

Chuck Alvey
President/CEO of EDAWN (Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada)

Chuck will be speaking on the ACPD’s civic engagement activities at the June 26th TMT member meeting.

Sparks Citizens Academy

2008-03-07T12:28:56Z

Apply for the first Sparks Citizens Academy before April 4th by calling Marc De La Torre at 353-4076 or email: mdelatorre at cityofsparks dot us

Washoe County Leadership Academy

2008-02-18T18:19:23Z

Apply for Washoe County’s 12-week citizen Leadership Academy: http://www.washoecounty.us/citizens

Highway clean-ups

2007-08-24T08:40:37Z

If you’re disguisted with the amount of liter & debris when traveling Highway 395 from Moana Lane to cold Springs, sponsor a highway clean-up program. This segment of highway is not suitable for volunteers because of traffic volume, shoulder size, visibility, terrain, side banks, access, frequency of pick-ups, or other safety reasons.

For more information, email kevin at adoptahwy dot com or visit:

http://www.nevadadot.com/pub_involvement/adopt_sponsor_hiway/