Taxes Upon Taxes Upon Taxes --  Triple Jeopardy Not Uncommon

How Many Times Can You Be Taxed On The Same Piece Of Property?

by Johnny Gunn

It probably isn't necessary to call your attention to this, but I will anyway. On the home page of the last issue and this one, there is an unending list of taxes of which most of us must pay, and pay, and pay (see "An Overview of the Nevada Tax System" in the right-hand column of the Home Page). First there is the basic property tax, then the special assessment districts start piling up, and within moments, we are paying two, three, sometimes four taxes on the same piece of property.

If one is found not guilty of a crime, one cannot then be brought up on the same charges again. To do so would be what is called double jeopardy. That doesn't mean much when a political entity such as a city or county wants more money. It's so simple, really, just create a new district, call it anything you want, it isn't voted on by anyone, no one can say no, and no one is held accountable. Unfortunately, it is also legal.

Make that district a multiple entity district in such a manner that more than one political jurisdiction is involved, and none of the so-called political leaders puts his or her neck on the line. Enjoy games? Try to find public budget figures for some of these districts. Publisher David Thompson is a whiz-kid when it comes to research, and he's been losing a lot of hair recently trying to find published budget figures for many of the tax districts around the state.

It's an entire form of shadow government, funded by us, unwittingly. Which leads to the question, if all these special little districts are bringing in so much money, why do we have a general fund at the city and county level? If that money isn't spent on what general fund budgets were created for hundreds of years ago, where do all those dollars go? There are water districts, road districts, even gutter districts not to mention clean air districts, dust control districts, and mosquito abatement districts, all with their own special taxes on your property. Most have a budget, but to find where it's published is the game. They don't want you to know.

And they want you to believe that your city councilperson or county commissioner is sitting as a voting member on all those taxation districts. Nonsense. Someone appointed is. And you have no voice what-so-ever in the matter. None.

All it takes today to get elected is lots of money, particularly from special interests, and maybe a pretty face to go on the TV screens. It doesn't take critical thinking to become a city councilperson or county commissioner. Just money, and maybe a pretty face. We need to set aside the pretty boys and pretty girls and start electing thinkers, leaders, qualified people to look after our needs.

Remember, they are our needs. Those are our roads to be maintained, not some regional transportation authority. They are ours. Get rid of all the little special assessment districts, force the people who took all the money in order to become a councilperson or commissioner to do the job they were elected to do.

There has been a move afoot recently to do away with the Nevada Public Utilities Commission (PUC). Of course, let's not let the common man/woman have a voice in matters that directly affect his or her life. But you see, dear heart, if all the current public utilities become municipalities, the PUC will be out of a job. Water districts, like all the other special assessment districts don't come under PUC jurisdiction. Some of that may change if Assembly Bill No. 323 is enacted in the current legislature.

AB 323 will require that state's Bureau of Consumer Protection, a part of the Attorney General's office, to audit and otherwise investigate how rate setting has been conducted by the Truckee Meadows Water Authority (TMWA). Recently TMWA raised water rates, generously, and specifically said they do not have to answer to the PUC or any other rate setting state agency. If the Bureau of Consumer Protection can conduct such an audit, more than likely the general public will have more of a voice in future rate changes.

Special assessment districts may be coming under federal scrutiny as well following the filing of a civil action in federal district court in Reno recently. Although specifically dealing with Reno's attempt to bury railroad tracks in a 2.5 mile trench through the heart of town, the suit questions if civil rights violations might have taken place by way of the special assessment (tax) district formed to help pay for the trench.

A ruling isn't expected on that suit for some time, but it is possible that the concept of special tax districts will get a full court review.

Scream and cuss, use foul language all you want when it comes to presidential elections, but keep in mind most of the money coming out of your pocket to fund government projects starts at the local level, and big money is spent to keep certain people in office at the local level. Critical thinking shouldn't be found only behind ivy covered walls, it should be found at council and commission tables, it should be found on election ballots.

If you want to know how and why special interest districts are formed, whether or not they really are legal, Thompson provided answers for us.

The statutes which allow the creation of creatures like this are NRS 277.080-NRS 277.180 (The Interlocal Cooperation Act). One of the most important statutes is NRS 277.110, which allows the joint exercise by cooperating agencies of any power which one of the agencies may have.

It doesn't stop with what is already on the books. New legislation has been introduced to further complicate how these special districts can operate. This is one that should be discussed at the polls, not in the Legislature.

SB 196 would grant broad new powers to the boards of directors of the Southern Nevada Water Authority and the Truckee Meadows Water Authority to solely conduct their business and affairs.

If government is going to take over utilities, run them in the same manner as any other government function, pile tax upon tax, and not be answerable, we might want to ask the question, what the hell happened to free enterprise?

To give you an idea of just how insidious this move to make almost every government function a special tax district, here is a list of special districts that exist just in Washoe County. According to Publisher Thompson, this list is not complete.

• Carson Tahoe (Boca) Water Conservation District
• Central Truckee Meadows Remediation District
• Gerlach General Improvement District
• Grandview Terrace (Black Springs) Water Board
• Horizon Hills General Improvement District
• Incline Village General Improvement District
• Lawton Verdi General Improvement District
• Lemmon Valley Water Board
• North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District
• Palomino Valley General Improvement District
• Reno Police District
• Reno Redevelopment District 1
• Reno Redevelopment District 2
• Reno Redevelopment District 3
• Reno Redevelopment District 4
• Reno Redevelopment District 5
• Sierra Forest Fire Protection District
• South Truckee Meadows General Improvement District
• Sparks Redevelopment District 1
• Sparks Redevelopment District 2
• Sun Valley Water & Sanitation District
• Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District
• Truckee Meadows Flood Management Program
• Truckee Meadows Underground Water Basin
• Verdi TV District

Supposedly each one of these special tax districts features a board of directors who have been elected to serve on either a city council or a county commission. And according to Nevada law, each of these districts is a "municipality," and does not come under the scrutiny of the Public Utilities Commission of the state, nor can the State Consumer Protection advocate intervene in any of their policies.

Doesn't exactly give one the warm and fuzzy feeling of security, does it? This not what old Honest Abe was referring to as government of, by, and for the people. Does the quote "You can fool some of the people some of the time ... " come to mind?

If you live in another county, that is, other than Washoe, and feel up to it and are not afraid of scaring yourself half to death, see how many tax districts have been formed in your county, and then try to find their budgets. Even scarier, see if you can find their boards of directors and see how many really are elected officials and not appointed. An appointed official should never have the ability to tax property or anything else.

Somewhere along the line we have lost the concept of government belonging to the people. The concept of a representative democracy doesn't exist when special tax districts are formed, tax districts that determine the amount of tax to be collected, and are chaired by people other than "representatives elected to serve the people."

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Tidbits & Other Stuff Just FYI

The State Lottery Proposal

When the Senate Judiciary Committee danced to the tune of the casino industry and told 76 percent of the state's adults to go to California and buy textbooks for California children, that is, when five of seven members of that committee voted no on a state lottery proposal, some of the members actually had guts enough to claim some kind of moral responsibility for their actions.

For your information, of the five whom voted no to the lottery, four also voted no to impeaching Controller Kathy Augustine of her ethical (moral) violations.

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Taxi Cameras

If the legislation had gone through, taxicabs in Las Vegas would be required to have cameras installed by today (April 1). Some say there was skullduggery involved in getting the legislation to fail, but regardless of that, many cabs in Sin City will have cameras operating today.

Yellow-Checker-Star Transportation boss Bill Shranko says there will probably be about 40 percent of the cabs with cameras by the end of the month. Some will have cameras and audio, others just cameras. It was the introduction of microphones that killed the legislation. Privacy matters.

Cameras are already in 300 of Whittlesea Bell Transportation cabs, about 100 more cabs will be outfitted soon.

According to the Nevada Taxicab Authority, 17 drivers have been murdered in southern Nevada since 1971, and interestingly only four have been solved.

One operator, Charlie Frias is against cameras in cabs and has begun lobbying efforts to have cameras removed from all cabs in Clark County. At this time we don't know how many of his drivers are among the dead.

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Property Tax Increases

Although they started out rather slow in the rarefied air of Nevada's capital, the 2005 Legislature has turned to as far as debate over the property tax problem in the Silver State. Both sides of the aisle seem to be working toward a fair and equitable solution to the skyrocketing tax problem.

It's Nevada's unique geography that gets in the way. Big huge monstrous building boom in Clark County leading to speculation and high assessments and lowering census figures in the rural counties where property values have actually declined.

Schools are funded more from property taxes than any other source, so trying to be fair to someone whose taxes just went up 58 percent while protecting the school district in Eureka County from falling revenue will take collective reason and wisdom.

Maybe that moral and ethical group we discussed in a paragraph or two above might solve the dilemma.