norman
country-financial
March 28, 2024 2:50 pm
Your hometown Newspaper since 1987.
Search
Close this search box.

MV Chamber Hears Incorporation Report

By Vernon Robison
Moapa Valley Progress
Submitted Apr. 2, 2008


The membership of the Moapa Valley Chamber of Commerce heard a report from its Incorporation Committee at a meeting held Thursday, March 27. A year ago, the committee was charged with the task of doing a preliminary, informal study into the feasibility of the greater Moapa community becoming an incorporated city.

Much of the data presented had been researched by committee members Daniel Pray, Ben Robison and Byron Mills.

Ben Robison, who lives in Logandale, explained that there was a tremendous amount of data that had been gathered to start to get a picture of what a Moapa city would look like. “I’ll be the first to admit that there is still a lot of data to gather and some questions we need to answer,” Robison said. “But we feel that this gives us a starting point.”

Pray began his presentation with the issue of property tax. “One of the big questions that comes up when talking about incorporation is: Will my property tax go up?” Pray said. “So that is where we will start.”

Pray explained that an incorporated city encompassing the current Moapa and Moapa Valley townships would be expected to generate over $1.3 million in property tax. Pray pointed out, however, that this number was calculated using only five of the nine current tax districts in the community. “The total assessed value of the remaining four districts were not made available to us, so we anticipate that the $1.3 million is a low number.”

Even so, Pray acknowledged that this would not be enough to run a new city. He reviewed a list of necessary expenditures that the new community would have to cover. The list included full operation and staffing costs for a city council, city manager, clerk, municipal court, police, public works, information technology, building department, parks and rec. and animal control.

The specific budget numbers were taken using current budget numbers from cities of Mesquite (pop. 25,000), Boulder City (pop. 15,000) and Fernley, Nevada (pop. 12,000).

The total costs to administer these city departments in a Moapa city was estimated at $3.3 million per year, Pray said. This is in line with Fernley’s budget which was at $3.4 million last year.

Pray then began a discussion of the State Consolidated Sales Tax. This, he said, was the major source of revenue for an incorporated city. Sales tax on all items purchased throughout the state are consolidated into a single pot, Pray explained, and then are divided out to various state entities, including incorporated cities.

In trying to determine a formula to calculate what a Moapa City could be expected to receive in Consolidated Tax, Pray spoke with the State Department of Taxation. He was told that the complex formula was based on many factors including: total square acreage area serviced by the community, franchises such as power and gas lines and railroad routes within the boundaries and the number of roads, highways and transportation routes in the community. Population plays only a small factor in the determination, Pray said.

The exact number that the new community would expect would be difficult to determine, Pray was told. “They told me that it is a lot of work requiring major studies to be done to come up with an exact number,” Pray said.

Those comprehensive studies would eventually have to be done as part of the process of becoming incorporated. “But they said, for now, that I would be safe to look at other surrounding incorporated communities in our vicinity to get a general figure from them.” So Pray looked at Boulder City and Mesquite. Boulder City received $8.5 million and Mesquite received $9.5 million in Consolidated Tax revenue last year.

“If we just figured that we would get half of that amount, a Moapa city would still be viable, able to pay its bills,” Pray said. “And that is talking about only two sources of revenue. There are many more revenue sources that would be available to an independent city.”

Pray also touched on the issue of police protection. Currently, local Metro police is funded by a portion of property taxes that adds up to well over $1.3 million per year, Pray said. “Again, that number is probably low since we are only using 5 out of 9 tax districts,” Pray said. In addition a quarter percent sales tax is available to hire new officers.

The greater Moapa Valley community currently has nine officers on duty. But their service area also covers the Bunkerville area.

Pray explained that he approached North Las Vegas Police Department to get a general idea of what was needed to adequately patrol just the proposed Moapa incorporated community area. “I was told that it could be effectively be patrolled with five officers and a chief of police,” Pray said. Adding this all together with salaries, cars, equipment and other operating expenses, Pray said that a local police department could be run well within the currently available revenue figures.

Finally a question was asked about how the new city would pay for major capital projects like sewer, flood control; and also how fire protection would be paid for. Pray pointed out that the special districts had already been established to address those needs.

“For example, the County Water Reclamation District is already working on the sewer system,” Pray said. “It would make no sense for the city to take that on. We have a power district and a water district already providing those services. We even have a fire district which, if it is structured correctly could provide fire prevention services.”

Ben Robison gave a presentaton of the steps outlined in NRS 266 to become an incorporated city. These steps included a petition to be signed by at least 1/3 of the residents. This petition must be presented to the county formally requesting incorporation. A complete and formal feasibility study would then be completed by county staff to determine if the new community would be able to function financially as an independent entity. The County Commission must then vote to approve the study and to schedule a formal election in the community. The results of the election must then be at least 51% in favor of incorporation. “If it is decided to move forward on this, we will need a real grassroots effort to take the information out to the community and gain support,” Robison said. “The Chamber is possibly the only single organization in this community large enough to carry that out so we will need help from you in doing it.”

Print This Article:

Share This Article:

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Screen Shot 2023-02-05 at 10.55.46 PM
2-21-2024-fullpagefair
4 Youth Service WEB
2-28-2024 WEB Hole Foods St Patricks
No data was found
2023 WEB BANNER 2 DEFAULT AD whitneyswater
Mesquite Works Web Ad 10-2020
Scroll to Top
Receive the latest news

Subscribe To Our Weekly Newsletter

Get notified about new articles