sales tax

Occasionally, while preparing somebody’s tax return, it appears that they just barely fall short of being able to itemize deductions instead of taking the standard exemption.

Nevada son and United States Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid addressed a joint session of the Nevada State Legislature today in Carson City. Here is the text of his speech:

City sales tax receipts are up, landfill revenues are down, and the mayor awaits Nevada's budget to see if city government's fiscal future in part stays a state hostage.

This is a letter I sent out to Gov. Sandoval, and multiple other State Representatives. I felt that the general public should know what our prison system is doing to multiple small business owners in Carson City and Nevada. I would be very pleased if someone would bring this to light and show what our tax dollars are doing in this economy. There was a big story about this in Vegas with another company ... but this is also happening in our own backyard.

Dear Governor Sandoval,

Carson City voters soundly rejected a proposed quarter cent sales tax to support a downtown library and elected two new faces to the Board of Supervisors.
In a razor-thin decision of just 25 votes, Carson City cast its decision and picked Jim Shirk over incumbent Molly Walt for the Ward 4 seat. Shirk pulled in 10,335 votes, getting 50.06 percent of the vote to Walt's 10,310 votes or 49.94 percent of the vote.

What are we voting on? The only design that has some cost estimates is a grandiose wish list with artist’s renderings presented in July 2011 that has been pared down and down… down to what? Vote NO on CC #1.

Cost estimates vary from $28M to $49M (plus financing costs), depending on what’s included. Even with the tax hike, the intent is to raid NNDA, sewer, federal and private funds. Vote NO on CC #1.

The concept dated July 2011 shows a grandiose wish list for a public-private development. Where is the pared down wish list that CC #1 asks us to approve? Vote NO on CC #1.

I appreciate the opportunity to write a commentary regarding Carson City Question 1 (CC#1) because I hope I might reach those people who are undecided on CC1 because of all the fearful information being circulated.
To make my point, a fairly large ad appeared in the Saturday, October 20th edition of the NV Appeal which had a picture of two older people and a young child and it said “Loving grandparents leave no debts for their grandchildren, vote no on CC#1”.

Let me start with a disclaimer. I am not against libraries. I have an entire room dedicated to my books. But I have not used a library since I was in graduate school, because everything I needed for work was on-line or in a bookstore, too new to have made it into a library, public or private.

Carson City residents are being asked to vote on a quarter-cent increase in sales tax to pay for a new library complex when they head to the polls in the coming weeks.

CARSON CITY – Nevada is one of the 10 best states for its business tax climate, while companies in states like New York, New Jersey, and California have a far less pleasant environment to deal with, according to a new report by the Tax Foundation.

From the Carson City sample ballot for the general election on November 6:

Question CC1.

"Shall Carson City, Nevada, be authorized to impose an additional sales tax of up to ¼ of 1 percent pursuant to NRS Chapter 377A to finance the design, construction, and maintenance of a library and public plaza park in the downtown on lands donated by the Hop and Mae Adams Foundation?"

Where to begin....

CARSON CITY – Former state Sen. Sheila Leslie drew a clear contrast with her Republican opponent Sen. Greg Brower in the District 15 race in Washoe County in a debate today, calling for a corporate profits tax to generate enough revenue to adequately fund education.

CARSON CITY – A new report from The Council of State Governments exploring the successes that 13 Western states have had with tax incentives to encourage economic growth found that Nevada has fewer such programs in large part because of its tax structure.

CARSON CITY – There were no takers today for the chance to weigh in on $89 million in tax breaks being offered to Apple in exchange for the company building a data center and related facilities in the Reno area that are expected to bring $1 billion in investment over the next decade.

The hearing on the proposed sales and personal property tax abatements, made as part of a deal to bring Apple to Northern Nevada, did not generate a single comment.

A reader yesterday submitted the following letter dealing with the Carson City Center Project, aka Nugget Project, and the citizen's petition to put the issue on the ballot:

Carson Supervisors Poised to Lose Credibility. . .Again

This Thursday Carson's supervisors are poised to undermine the community's clear desire for finite boundaries on the downtown library complex project.

CARSON CITY – About $87 million in state taxes that could be parlayed into 10 times as much to pay for critical road improvements are ready to flow to the state Department of Transportation next year, but there are concerns the money could be diverted to other needs.

The people behind the petition effort to force the Carson City Center aka Nugget Project on the ballot submitted 4,559 signatures to the Carson City Clerk-Recorder's office for verification this morning.

The group needs have have 2,935 signatures verified by the clerk to qualify the petition. Day Williams, an attorney who is part of the petitioners' group, said they did their own verification check of the signatures against the voter rolls and are confident they have more than enough to qualify.

Carson City residents will get to vote on the future of the Carson City Center aka Nugget Project after the Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 to put the question on the ballot.

The question will ask voters to approve a 1/4 cent sales tax increase to fund the $28 million Knowledge and Discovery Center that has been the focus of the project for the last 4 years.

One of the biggest, once-in-a-lifetime thrills this writer experienced was first-time voting eligibility in local, state and national elections. What a privilege to have my official opinion added in to the larger community, with an impact on public decisions going forward. Much can be learned from the morning-after election results, which chronicle where we are as a community at a given moment. . .a snapshot of what's on people's collective minds, or at least those who choose to exercise their voting rights.

The Carson City Board of Supervisors yesterday approved wording for ballot question seeking a sales tax increase to fund the Carson City Center Project, aka Nugget Project.

See the live Tweets of the meeting here.

Supervisors agreed to two important changes to the original wording released last week.

Since posting the City Center aka Nugget Project ballot question on Friday, I've had several calls about why the question is advisory.

After all, according to Nevada Revised Statutes 377A.030, the Carson City Board of Supervisors must seek a majority vote of the people to implement the quarter cent sales tax to fund the project. So why is it advisory?

The City Center aka Nugget Project ballot question will go before the Carson City Board of Supervisors for discussion on June 7.

The board last month directed staff to work on wording for a ballot question to seek approval from voters for a quarter cent sales tax increase to fund the project. Now that question will be coming back to the board to decide whether to place it on the ballot.

The proposed question reads as follows: