sales tax

CARSON CITY – Advocates for a tax hike on cigarettes and liquor made their case in the Nevada Legislature today, both to raise revenue and improve public health.
The proposal received a mixed reaction from lawmakers, and some lobbyist opposition, however, because of the negative consequences on business.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
Despite upgrading Nevada’s outlook from negative to stable, the credit rating agency Moody’s downgraded Nevada’s credit rating to Aa2 from Aa1.
The rationale behind the adjustment involves Nevada’s Legislature. Moody’s cited the two-thirds supermajority required to raise taxes as a negative in Nevada.

Last month, the Carson City Board of Supervisors heard complaints from the owners of two private golf courses about the city subsidizing the operator of the city-owned Eagle Valley Golf courses by forgiving its $200,000 lease payment.

One issue brought up at the time was that the city needs the Eagle Valley courses to help dispose of effluent water from its sewage treatment plant. If Eagle Valley was not operating, then the city would be forced to spend more money to build more storage for the water.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – State Controller Kim Wallin is seeking new authority from the Nevada Legislature to collect from those who owe the state money.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Assemblyman Pat Hickey, R-Reno, says he is interested in changing the state’s tax structure.
He wrote in a weekly newsletter he might consider broadening the state’s tax base, an idea that he has talked about with UNR economics professor Elliott Parker.

CARSON CITY – The governor has proposed taking funds school districts are using for emergency repairs to help balance the state budget.
School districts have said this would leave them with little money to fix broken boilers and leaky roofs or perform other emergency repairs.
“We don’t have any money set aside right now to cover those expenses if the governor’s proposal moves forward,” said Craig Hulse from the Washoe County School District before a Senate committee reviewing the governor’s proposal.

After a marathon meeting today, the Carson City Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to allow staff to begin negotiations on agreements to develop the City Center/Nugget Project.

But the project may face hurdles getting final approval, as two of those voting yes expressed concerns about the project.

CARSON CITY – It took less than a day before Sen. Elizabeth Halseth had the attention she was looking for.
Tim Crowley, a lobbyist for the mining industry, said he called her this morning to schedule a meeting after she asked in a Tuesday night blog post, “did mining just hit a brick wall?”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOTDn2A7hcY

For more than a year, the lack of firm details about the Nugget Project has been a major source of frustration to those trying to get their heads around this undertaking.

Without real numbers or plans, those arguing for or against struggled with hitting the moving target that is this project.

But that target just got a whole lot more stationary, as Carson City Manager Larry Werner released a 100+ page feasibility report (attached below) for the Board of Supervisors to use this week when a decision is made on whether to move forward with the project.

Carson City leaders will learn next week whether the proposed Carson City Center, also known as the Nugget Project, is financially viable and may vote on whether to move forward with development agreements.

Thursday's meeting of the Board of Supervisors is a culmination of many months of studies, public meetings, workshops and a citizen's advisory committee. Supervisors will hear the results and recommendations of the project at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 17 in the Sierra Room of the Carson City Community Center, 851 East William Street.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Construction industry groups advocating for a tax increase to fund public works projects around the state to help put people back to work made their pitch to a legislative committee today, but the Building Jobs Coalition proposal faces opposition from Gov. Brian Sandoval.

CARSON CITY – They speak of limbs hacked off, death and guts.
In a war of words, critics of Gov. Brian Sandoval’s $5.8 billion budget have lambasted his proposed cuts to K-12, higher education and health and human services.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
RENO – When Gov. Brian Sandoval’s staff reduced funding for the Sierra Regional Center in the governor’s proposed budget, he may not have known what that would mean to the Stangelands.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – A coalition of construction industry groups today advocated for a tax increase to fund public works projects around the state to help put people back to work.
The Building Jobs Coalition presented its proposal, called the “Creating 100,000 Jobs” report, in press conferences in both Las Vegas and Reno.

By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Gov. Brian Sandoval’s staff today clarified that the proposed five percent salary reductions announced yesterday includes teachers and higher-education employees.

Here is another example of why paying companies to do business in your city is problematic. Now that Carson City handed out more generous incentives to retailers in Southgate Center than it had to others in the past, it's now faced with other businesses who want their incentives, too.

CARSON CITY – Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford has sent an email to supporters and constituents suggesting the next two-year state budget is facing an attack from “extreme right-wing” interests who will use the current economic crisis to “dismantle our state.”

Plans to phase out the use of sales tax reimbursement incentive agreements in Carson City will go before the Redevelopment Authority Citizens Committee on Monday.

The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. in the Sierra Room of the Carson City Community Center, 851 East William Street.

The Redevelopment Authority is considering phasing out the sales tax incentive program and wants the input of the citizens committee.

By Jim Shirk

Some civic leaders tend to invest our city funds into one business proposal in the community then move to another and then another. This tax will become the next great example of that strategy.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – A panel of private sector fiscal experts today projected the Nevada state general fund will have about $5.3 billion in tax revenues to spend on government services for the next two years.
The Nevada Economic Forum spent the day making projections for gaming, sales, business and other major tax revenues for use by Gov.-elect Brian Sandoval and the Legislature in crafting a balanced budget for the two years beginning July 1, 2011.

A leading financial analysis firm told the Nevada Economic Forum that Nevada will have job growth in five major categories in 2011. Click here to read the Reno Gazette-Journal story. Click here for additional updates, including sales tax revenue projections.

When I was at the Nugget Advisory Committee meeting last week, a PR person working for P3 Development and the Carson Nugget handed me a list of Frequently Asked Questions about the project.

One thing a complex project like this could really use is an FAQ list. Of course, this list came from those developing the project, so a little spin was to be expected. But I was surprised at how much spin there was.

The Carson Nugget Development Advisory Committee voted Monday night to forward the still-changing plans for the Carson City Center/Nugget Project to the Board of Supervisors.

The committee heard a presentation from P3 Development about the feasibility plan they said showed that the project was viable.

One point I think you could get all sides of the debate over the Carson City Center/Nugget Project to agree on is that it's a very complicated deal.

But after spending a good deal of time looking at the newly released feasibility study for this project, it struck me that it's really not that complicated. If you strip away all the extraneous issues about the land leases and who is paying who, it comes down to a simple trade.

It boils down to this: the Carson Nugget is giving the city a piece of land to build a new library and public plaza. In return, the city is building the Nugget a new parking garage for its casino and future hotel/conference center.

I have been been going over the Nugget Project feasibility report this morning, tying to digest the details.

Overall, it really isn't much different than what was presented to the citizens committee back in September. The one exception is that P3 Development seems to think that building a hotel is more feasible now, following another study showing that it is.

By Guy W. Farmer

After Carson Nugget President Steve Neighbors accused me of basing my opposition to the Nugget Bailout Project (aka the City Center Project) on “conjecture and false innuendo” in last Tuesday’s Appeal, I asked former mayors Ray Masayko and Marv Teixeira for their opinions on this dubious project. Both Masayko and Teixeira, who were political rivals in recent years, raised serious questions about the $80 million project, which would put nearly $40 million tax dollars at risk during an economic recession and
impose an additional one-eighth-cent sales tax.

At the Carson City Board of Supervisor meeting going on right now, Office of Business Development Director Joe McCarthy announced that a new Olive Garden restaurant will be going into the Southgate Center on South Carson Street.

Olive Garden has agreed to a land lease, conditioned upon the developer of the shopping center filling the other empty stores. On that point, the new Big Lots store will open next month, and Big 5 Sports will be moving into the other space from their current, smaller location on North Carson Street.

Shop Carson City First: It's All Here!, an idea spearheaded by the Carson City Chamber of Commerce a few years ago, has taken on a new incarnation, this time using social media as a tool to spread the word about its members and the deals and services they offer.

As advertising budgets tighten, social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter have become a cost-effective means to spread the word to consumers about the latest deals and exclusive offerings in town.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – A Nevada lawmaker has asked for a bill to be drafted to require bottled water to be subjected to the state sales tax.
Assemblyman Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, said bottled water is included under the sales tax exemption for food in Nevada even though it has no nutritional value.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
Taxes, the state budget and a looming revenue shortfall in 2011 took center stage Thursday in the second debate between the two major party candidates for Nevada governor.