tax revenues

The Nevada Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously rejected Fernley’s attempt to receive a bigger share of Lyon County’s tax revenues.The court agreed with District Judge Todd Russell that, w ...

Carson City Ward 2 Supervisor Brad Bonkowski will hold his first “Breakfast with Brad” of 2016 on Friday, Jan. 8, from 7 to 8 a.m. at the Cracker Box restaurant. All Carson City residents are invited to join Bonkowski for coffee and conversation.

Today we’re thankful that the widely despised Commerce Tax is moving toward a Nevada voter referendum.

Acting for the concerned citizens of RIP Commerce Tax, Inc., Ron filed a referendum petition on that tax in October. Tax-hike advocates brought a meritless law suit seeking to deny you a vote on it. RIP filed its answer, and a hearing on the case will be held 9 AM Wednesday, December 2 at Carson City’s court house. After defeating this suit, we’ll have legions of folks gathering signatures to put it to a vote next November.

Every year at this time, my heart beats a little lighter. All the negativity, bad news, etc. of recent is now “last year’s old news.” I’m looking at a blank slate. No baggage! (Well, maybe I picked up a pound or two with all the Christmas goodies.)
So what are the good things to look forward to on the horizon?

The City of Yerington and Lyon County are pleased to announce that Friday, the U.S. Senate passed the Congressional legislation to transfer 10,400 acres of land from the federal government to the City of Yerington.

The same bill passed the House of Representatives on Dec. 2014. Section 3009, the “Land Conveyance to Yerington, Nevada” was included in the National Defense Authorization Act and will now go to President Obama for signing before year-end.

The improving economy is fueling an increase in sales tax revenues. That, combined with ongoing business expansions in Carson City, had allowed the Board of Supervisors to lower the property tax rate. We lowered the property tax rate by $.02/$100 of assessed value in 2014. Doesn’t sound like much, and some criticized it as a political ploy, but in reality we can only lower it in small increments or we jeopardize placing too large a deficit in the General Fund budget.

The Redevelopment Authority Citizens Committee meets tonight, Monday, at 5:30 p.m. p.m. in the Sierra Room of the Carson City Community Center.

At the meeting committee members will discuss and give their recommendations to the Carson City Board of Supervisors regarding the conceptual design of the Refresh Carson downtown plan for Carson Street between William and Fifth streets. The committee will vote to recommend allowing city staff to continue to develop more detailed design elements of the plan.

With a packed house and lots of questions, Carson City residents had a chance Tuesday to see what enhanced downtown landscaping, street and sidewalk improvements would look like in a planned redesign of downtown.

The Carson Street improvement project is part of an overall plan to revitalize the commercial corridors throughout Carson City. The improvements, made public during two workshops at the Carson City Community Center, will be funded through sales tax revenues, one-eighth of a cent, approved earlier this by the Carson City Board of Supervisors.

Even with its $1.3 billion in state tax incentives, Tesla Motors could generate $1.24 billion to $1.95 billion in new direct and indirect tax revenues in Nevada, over the next 20 years, according to a state-commissioned report released Tuesday.
The $1.9 billion impact includes Tesla's factory, its employees and the businesses that serve them.

Carson City will present concepts for improvements to downtown Carson Street at a public open house on Tuesday, Sept. 16, at noon and 5:30 p.m. in the Community Center Sierra Room.

The concepts will be available for public review and staff will be available to answer questions and take public comments from 12 to 1:30 p.m. and 5:30 to 7 p.m.

Plans for downtown include wider sidewalks and enhanced landscaping. The plans will implement the vision for downtown that was adopted with the City’s Master Plan in 2006.

Carson City will hold its third workshop tonight to answer questions and take comment on proposed plans to implement a one-eighth cent sales tax that would go toward several infrastructure projects.

Carson City will hold three public workshops this month that are designed to answer questions and solicit comments regarding a proposed 1/8th-cent sales tax to fund several infrastructure projects.

The money would help pay for a new multi-purpose athletic center, known as the “MAC,” a new animal services facility, and streetscape beautification and safety enhancements along the Carson City’s main commercial corridors and the downtown area.

The 2012 education PISA* rankings indicate that the USA came in at 25th for math, 14th for reading and 17th for science out of 30 countries with only three of those countries spending slightly more money per pupil than America. Yet the mantra for more money, benefits and taxes for education continue just as it has for the last sixty years. If more money will solve the education problem then why hasn't it ever worked in the last sixty years?

CARSON CITY – Gov. Brian Sandoval today released budget data that had been sought by state lawmakers after a weeks-long disagreement over whether the information was public.

As a matter of law, the Nevada state constitution requires a balanced budget. As a matter of economic law and history, raising taxes will never balance a budget. It never has and never will. If a budget cannot be balanced without tax increases, it will never be balanced afterwards. The reason is simple, raising taxes decreases tax revenues and strangles growth. Many Nevada taxpayers believe that our legislators seek to redistribute our tax dollars to buy votes or political power rather than serve the public good.

CARSON CITY – The impacts of the so-called “fiscal cliff” on Nevada’s state budget would likely be less significant than for many other states because of our lower dependence on federal spending, according to an analysis by the Pew Center on the States.

CARSON CITY – A report released today shows that Nevada’s mining industry has accounted for 14 percent of jobs added statewide in the past year and 33 percent of jobs added statewide since the recession ended in June 2009.

16 Questions about CC1

While few can claim to have all the answers about the CC1 advisory, concerning the funding of a new city library, here are a few questions that I think everyone might consider – especially those in our city government.

Why are libraries being closed and sold all over the country?

Why are universities closing and selling libraries?

How fast will all books be replaced with eBooks?

What is the future of the library in the Internet age?

How many books can I carry on my keychain flashdrive or in my smart cell phone or eBook reader?

CARSON CITY – Nevada’s next two-year general fund budget would grow by $279 million to $6.46 billion based on the initial spending requests submitted by state agencies, information released today by the Budget Division shows.

CARSON CITY – Democratic state Senate candidate Kelli Ross said today that she is the “union” candidate in the District 18 race in Las Vegas, while Republican Scott Hammond said he will listen to but not vote in lockstep with labor in the Legislature.

CARSON CITY – A state panel was told today that for yet another two-year state budget, there will be virtually no money available from property tax revenues for capital construction projects.

The state Public Works Board heard the disappointing news today as it began a two-day review of projects being sought by state agencies ranging from the Department of Corrections to Tourism and Cultural Affairs.

CARSON CITY – A panel of lawmakers today recommended that Nevada’s public education funding formula be revised to take into account the higher cost of educating specific groups of students, including English-language learners and children in poverty.

But lawmakers also acknowledged that updating the formula won’t mean any significant changes in funding for the state’s 17 school districts until the state’s economy improves and tax revenues increase.

There is no proposal to shift funding from one district to another to fund a new weighted formula.

CARSON CITY – The Committee to Protect Nevada Jobs has filed a new lawsuit against a revised margin tax initiative petition sought by the Nevada State Education Association for violating a prohibition requiring such measures to focus on a single

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.

CARSON CITY – The Committee to Protect Nevada Jobs filed a lawsuit today against the “Education Initiative” (margin tax Initiative) charging that that the petition’s description of effect is deceptive and incomplete and that it violates the single-subject rule.

The complaint was filed in Carson City District Court.

CARSON CITY – The National Retail Federation has launched a nationwide 60-day campaign to raise awareness among lawmakers and the public on how what it calls a loophole exempting online sales from sales tax is hurting local communities and job creation.

If Nevada’s five-member Congressional delegation is any indication, the group has its work cut out for it, with three members opposed and two supportive of the idea to allow states to tax online sales.

CARSON CITY – Two Republican members of the Assembly who both want to move into the Senate in District 18 faced off today in a televised debate that focused primarily on a controversial 2011 tax vote.

Last week it was revealed that the Carson City Board of Supervisors would be considering putting a question on the ballot to approve a quarter-cent sales tax to fund a downsized $28 million City Center Project, aka Nugget Project.

CARSON CITY – A consultant hired by the cities of Henderson and Las Vegas to analyze the process used to distribute taxes to the counties and cities told lawmakers today the formula now used to make the allocations has weaknesses.

CARSON CITY – Gov. Brian Sandoval said today that a recent deal announced with Amazon.com to collect sales taxes from on-line purchases in Nevada beginning in January 2014 is only the tip of the iceberg.