“Show me the numbers!” This is the community’s plea across the valley concerning the incorporation debate. Rightly so, why buy a vehicle that can’t be afforded? The public should understand it is up to us as a community to ask the State of Nevada to perform the research that will show us the numbers.

Article 266 in the Nevada Revised Statutes describes the steps the community is required to take in order to accomplish incorporation.   This article will discuss the petition for incorporation (NRS 266.018-266.026) and the day of election to incorporate (NRS 266.029-266.033).

Regardless of your stance on incorporation, the community deserves to discover whether or not it is feasible to govern ourselves and control the community’s future. Such a discovery can be made by beginning the path to incorporation found in NRS 266.

In order to initiate the incorporation process a petition to Clark County is made from the community. This petition signifies to the county that the community desires to incorporate. It does not necessarily mean that the community will incorporate. In fact, by signing the petition it only indicates the community’s interest to incorporate. The same individual that signs this initial petition will have an opportunity to vote against incorporating during the day of election that will be held at a later date.

The election comes at a later date so the research that has been done between the time of petition and the time of election will be manifest to the community. Therefore each member will have the knowledge to make an educated decision whether to incorporate or not.

This knowledge will include the fiscal effect of incorporation for this area. The research will be performed by the Nevada State’s Committee on Local Government Finance as well as the State Department of Taxation. NRS 266.023.1 says, “the Department of Taxation shall prepare a concise statement concerning the estimated fiscal effect of the incorporation on the residents of the proposed city, including an estimated tax rate and an example of that tax rate applied for 1 year to a median-priced home in the area of the proposed city compared to an example of the present tax rate in the area applied for the same period to the same home.” This is how we as a community can show ourselves if incorporation is feasible. This will also demonstrate to ourselves what the costs will be to govern ourselves and control the future of Moapa valley ourselves.

Many other factors will be considered in determining advisability of incorporation and the feasibility of the proposed city. These factors will be reviewed by the board of County Commissioners. The factors considered are listed in NRS 266.0285.

The petition to incorporate must be signed by registered voters within this community. The county will review the petition to make sure that only registered voters who signed the petition will be viable. (If you are not a registered voter and desire to have your voice count, go register to vote). It takes 1/3 of the registered voters in the community to have a valid petition to the county.

Look for future advertisements for upcoming meetings and events in the community to have the opportunity to sign the petition for incorporation.

THE INCORPORATION COMMITTEE
Rick Eide
David Grauman
Byron Mills
Ben Robison
Ryan Wheeler

This article was published in the Moapa Valley Progress on 2/11/09

It’s a community fear that if Moapa Valley incorporates we will have to bear this financial burden ourselves. What will we do? We don’t have a large commercial base, casinos, or industrial base to support a city. I don’t have all the answers, but I desire to share my insights on this topic.

If the community becomes an incorporated area, we do not need to become a Mesquite, or a Henderson. Nor do we need to provide sales pitches to businesses and tourists about our area in order to increase a tax base.

There are several geographic areas that have incorporated and have retained a small town lifestyle. These include: Boulder City, Kanaraville, Enterprise, Kanab, and LaVerkin. The closest to home would be Boulder City. Boulder City controls the annual building permits each year, an item this community may consider. My point is that we can become an incorporated area and not turn into a Henderson or a metropolis. We will need leaders that can plan growth around striving to maintain a small town feel and rural lifestyle.

If the community incorporates, the largest source of revenue for the city’s new operating budget will come from a consolidated tax distribution allotted monthly to the community. This is a general state fund that was set up to help local governments. Had we been incorporated last year, our allocation would have been $70,000 a month or $845,789.91 over the fiscal year for the city’s operating budget (Statistics taken from the Nevada Department of Taxation). I don’t know exactly what amount this would contribute to the cities operating budget, but I assume it would be about 40-60% of the budget.

In 2000, the University of Nevada Reno provided a study titled “Legal And Economic Considerations For Incorporation Of Nevada Towns”. This can be found at http://www.cabnr.unr.edu/uced/Reports/Technical/fy2000_2001/2000_01_02rpt.pdf

I would suggest anyone interested in learning more about incorporating to review this document. It is very insightful regarding the pros and cons of incorporating a rural area. In this study, UNR compares the operating budget of unincorporated towns to incorporated cities. Such comparisons are the city of Carlin (2680) [population] to the town of Minden (2400); city of Lovelock (2880) to the town of Gardnerville (2780); city of Yerington (2870) to the town of Tonopah (2760); city of Elko (19,760) to the town of Pahrump (18,790).

According to the mentioned study, the property taxes for the unincorporated towns were 21% of their total revenues. Incorporated cities from the study had property taxes at 9% of their total revenues. This shows that a city’s operating budget relies less on property taxes than other sources of revenue. Whether this would be the same for our community is still unknown.

The community’s current tax rate is 2.5191 or 0.025191%. This means that per $100 assessed value of property, we pay $2.5191 of that $100 to taxes. Through the Nevada State Tax rules, the tax rate can not exceed $3.64 per $100 assessed value. Realize that this is based on the counties assessed value, not what you think your property is worth. Compare the following other areas in the county and their property tax rates: Mesquite (2.7661), Laughlin (3.3407), Henderson (2.8973), Coyote Springs (2.7374).

I do not have the expertise to say exactly how our property taxes will be affected if the community incorporates. The method to discover this is to initiate the incorporation process. The property tax consequences will be analyzed. The proposed new property tax will be made known. As a community we can decide if such a cost is worth governing ourselves. We will also need to analyze the benefits of governing and planning the future of our Moapa Valley rather than rely on outside government and how the county plans for the future of their Moapa Valley.

I believe that the benefits to incorporate would outweigh the increase in taxes that may come. It is foreseeable that an increase will come, but property taxes will not be the sole revenue for the new city. The tax impact will likely be smaller than you anticipate.

Ryan Wheeler

Published in the Moapa Valley Progress on 2/4/09