Property Tax

The Reno Gazette-Journal is reporting that Apple is planning on opening a data center east of Sparks and a business and purchasing center in downtown Reno, part of a $1 billion investment the company plans to spend in Northern Nevada over the next 10 years.
The deal includes tax abatements from the city and state, including sales and property tax. The Reno City Council will consider the deal on Wednesday.

A reader wrote in today asking about the property tax hike the Carson City Board of Supervisors approved unanimously last week. What follows is a breakdown:

The property tax rate will go from $3.1872 to $3.66. If you do the math, that works out to a 13 percent increase. However, state law limits the amount of increase that homeowners have to pay to 3 percent per year, 6.4 percent on commercial properties. They estimate that taxes on average will increase 3 percent next year under this new rate, and account for about $3 million more than they would under the old rate.

The candidates' forum put on Tuesday night by the Carson City Chamber of Commerce allowed the seven people running for Carson City Supervisor to define where they each stand on local issues.

The candidates included current Ward 4 Supervisor Molly Walt, and the two other people running for that seat, Jim Shirk and Amy Clemens. Vying for the open Ward 2 seat were Brad Bonkowski, Dennis Johnson, Stacie Wilke-McCulloch and Maurice White.

The Carson City Board of Supervisors will hold a special meeting today to consider the budget for the coming year, and also to consider raising the city's property tax rate. You can see the full agenda here. The live video is here.

In today's economically stressed environment, it would be quite the political feat to enact any kind of tax increase.

But the backers of the Carson City Center Project, aka Nugget Project, are going to have to hope they can pull off a miracle two-fer.

CARSON CITY – A new business index evaluating the states on the effects of their tax systems on entrepreneurship and small business ranks Nevada 3^rd behind South Dakota and Texas.

The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council’s “Business Tax Index 2012” pulls together 18 different tax measures, and combines them into one tax score that allows the 50 states and District of Columbia to be compared and ranked.

The Carson City Board of Supervisors will hear from the city's finance director Nick Providenti tomorrow on the budget outlook for the next fiscal year, and that outlook will include a call for higher property taxes.

In an interview on Tuesday, Providenti said the property tax rate should be raised from $3.18 to $3.66, which is the limit under current state law. (This rate is for those homes on the west side that are part of the Sierra Forest Fire Protection District. The rest of the city pays 10 cents less.)

CARSON CITY – Nevada’s polices of low taxes and small government ranked it 18^th among states in its ability to compete and grow its economy, according to a report released today by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

CARSON CITY – A new report questions the value of tax incentives and regulations approved by many states around the country, including Nevada, to create “green jobs,” noting that subsidies used for such programs can take away revenue for other needs such as public education.

CARSON CITY – Nevada ranks at the top of states for its low overall tax liability paid by mature businesses, but only 38^th for new firms due in part to a lack of incentives, according to a new comprehensive study by the Tax Foundation.

Property tax assessments were mail out today to Carson City property owners, and according to Assessor Dave Dawley, the assessed value of property has dropped at least 10 percent — $155 million total — since last year.

The drop in value follows at $132 million decline the prior year.

The property assessments take into account property sales up to July 1.

Nevada is the fastest growing state in export value as a share of its total economy, according to a new report by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The value of the state’s manufactured exports has more than tripled since 2002. Its primary exports are mineral deposits, coin-operated games and electronics.
Other states rated highly for exporting are Louisiana, Utah, South Carolina, Mississippi, Delaware, and Texas.
High performing states were evaluated based upon:

CARSON CITY – Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto will not follow through on Gov. Brian Sandoval’s request to ask the Nevada Supreme Court for clarification on Thursday’s ruling that the state cannot use $62 million it took from the Clean Water Coalition during the legislative special session in 2010.
A letter issued by Masto’s office said, “there is no procedural mechanism” for seeking a clarification of the high court’s decision.

CARSON CITY — The state’s budget just took a $656 million hit, according to members of Gov. Brian Sandoval’s staff.
Following a Supreme Court decision earlier today, the governor convened the press at 11 p.m. to outline his opinion of how the decision effects funding streams used in the state budget.
“The problem is much worse than we thought,” said Dale Erquiaga, the governor’s senior adviser.

CARSON CITY – The argument goes like this: every Nevadan would only pay 50 cents per person for a great renewable energy program.
Energy lobbyist Ted Ko even held up two shiny quarters during a legislative hearing to make the point.
But legislators are considering more than a dozen renewable energy bills this session,  and some lawmakers fear that a few dollars here and there will add up to significantly higher utility bills for their constituents if all of these bills pass.

CARSON CITY – The budget situation for Nevada’s universities and colleges may have worsened today as legislators voted to both cut and restore funding for higher education.

By Sean Whaley
CARSON CITY – Members of the Legislature’s two money committees reviewed Gov. Brian Sandoval’s proposed budget for higher education today in preparation for making final decisions on how to fund the state’s public university system for the next two years.

By Sean Whaley
CARSON CITY – Work on closing Nevada’s two-year $6 billion general fund budget will begin in earnest tomorrow after the Economic Forum today finalized its tax revenue projections for the coming two years.
But legislative Democrats and Gov. Brian Sandoval remain far apart on an acceptable spending plan even with a $218 million general fund revenue increase.

By Andrew Doughman
CARSON CITY – Nevada’s rural Republican legislators are struggling to defend the governor’s budget that cuts their communities.
Democrats have been showcasing cuts to the rural counties in order to convince rural Republican legislators that a vote for tax increases is a vote to mitigate the harm to their districts.
Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, said that rural counties are already “cut to the bone,” and in many cases could lose all that they have left.

Carson City leaders today will review the 2012 fiscal year budget, with overall spending down about 1 percent from 2011 figures.

Looking ahead to 2012, the Board of Supervisors will see a budget that serves 21 government funds with estimated expenditures of $80.5 million and 10 proprietary funds at $39.2 million, City Manager Larry Werner reports.

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.

CARSON CITY – Lobbyists, legislators and journalists expected to hear about a bill that would increase energy bills for Nevadans when they arrived at a legislative hearing.
Assemblyman Randy Kirner, R-Reno, sat down before the committee, ready to present his bill that would levy a fee on anyone paying an electric bill. That fee would help new businesses pay their energy bills. He designed the bill to attract manufacturing businesses to Nevada with reduced energy costs.

There was a time when the only choice for golfers who couldn't afford to join a country club was to play a municipal course.

That time ended many years ago with the construction of many privately owned golf courses in and around Carson City. For a while, it seemed a new course was being built every year. We were suddenly flush with great courses, and something new to market our area to visitors.

It happened almost too fast. Mayor Bob Crowell made a quick motion, and asked if anyone on the board had any appetite for raising property taxes. No one did.

The finance director spoke up to suggest a small adjustment for one area. Supervisor Karen Abowd made a different motion to keep taxes the same except for this small adjustment. That motion passed unanimously.

This may be the biggest agenda for a Carson City Board of Supervisors meeting in a very long time. The three big items will be a proposed 14 percent property tax rate increase, the $4.5 million first phase of the Multi-Purpose Athletic Complex (MAC), then followed up by the Carson City Center/Nugget Project after lunch. (The full agenda is here)

If you don't have the free time to spend the entire day in the Sierra Room at the Community Center (and limited seating may be an issue), you can keep track of the fun with our live video feed right here. We'll also be liveblogging the meeting via Twitter, as there is sure to be a lot to comment on, so we invite people to join in.

As a warm-up for the Nugget Project discussion, here is a story from the Appeal about that issue, that lists a lot of commentary from locals about the project.

Update: The meeting is in recess until 2, when they take up the Nugget Project.

Gee, and you thought the big issue at Thursday's meeting of the Carson City Board of Supervisors was going to the redevelopment project that has been the object of heated discussions for the past year.

But the revelation that a 14 percent hike in the property tax rate was also on the agenda seems to be causing people to put the Nugget Project on the back burner.

I received a call from the Builders Association of Western Nevada this afternoon about a big property tax increase the Carson City Board of Supervisors is going to vote on tomorrow.

The funny thing is, I read through the agenda last week and didn't see it. But it was easy to miss. It is number 15 on the agenda, and the language used gives very little clue as to what it is (the document is attached below).

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.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Gov. Brian Sandoval today said he will embark on a multifaceted approach to rebuilding Nevada’s economy by assisting in private-sector job growth, including the creation of a $10 million “Catalyst Fund” to provide one-time incentives to businesses that want to relocate to the state.