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commissioners approve pipeline

Storey County Commissioners Approve Moving Forward On TRIC Pipeline Proposal

  • Storey County Commissioners Approve The TRIC Pipeline Proposal to Move Forward
  • Fulcrum Bio-Energies financing bonds also approved providing an interesting contrast to the TRIC pipeline proposal
  • Details Of The TRIC Proposal are nearly identical to the old deal that was nixed by the State of Nevada; only semantics seem to separate the two proposals
  • Storey County Taxpayers will again be forced to pay for the TRIC pipeline should it pass in its current configuration
  • Long Sales Pitch, Short On Substance
  • TRIC-GID – What’s the deal?
  • Deafening silence from one significant member of the audience

Storey County Commissioners Approve Moving Forward On TRIC Pipeline Proposal

At the August 7th County Commissioner Meeting, The County Commissioners voted to take the first step in approving the Effluent Pipeline, The Teller has written extensively about the pipeline project here and here and here and here.

The new proposal breaks down like this:

  • The proposed pipeline will be part of an expansion of the TRIC-GID which includes:
    • The effluent pipeline
    • A new treatment center
    • A delivery system that will distribute the treated water to TRIC-GID clients
  • Bonds will be issued to Storey County and then transferred/sold to the State of Nevada to finance the pipeline
  • A Special Assessment District (SAD) will be created to collect money from the Developers to make the bond payments to the State of Nevada.
  • A Tax Increment Area (TIA) will be created to reimburse the Developers for the money they spent to make the bond payments from future tax revenues.
  • All infrastructure will be given to the TRIC-GID once operational for them to operate and maintain.

For those of you who haven’t read the articles connected to the above links, this project will build a pipeline transporting 1.3 million gallons of effluent from TMWRF’s Sparks facility to a processing facility at TRIC. This water will be used by businesses as they expand their facilities within the SAD and TIA.

But First A Word From The Other Bond Deal Passed At The Meeting

Before I get into the granular and (mostly) boring details of the pipeline proposal it is important to look at the other bond deal passed at the meeting. Before the discussion on the pipeline deal got underway Pat Whitten scolded the public for being tempted to use the term Corporate Welfare and asked us to refer to the proposal instead as a Public-Private Partnership.

He then asked all the players in the pipeline proposal to stand up. People from Switch, Tesla, Reno Properties, Blockchains, and other companies recognized as titans of Storey County Industry. In doing so he seemed to somehow bestow upon them mythical and magical status from the top of Sun Mountain. Wonderful people. Really, just wonderful, great people representing wonderful companies. Great, great companies. Just Great.

Remaining seated was the representative from Fulcrum Bio-Energies. When the agenda moved to Fulcrum she was not asked to rise. But she should have been.

Fulcrum’s $ 40 million bond deal was on the agenda because Storey County is required to sign off on the deal itself. By doing so, the County indicates that the bonds and the company seeking them are legit and not a group of Nigerian Princes trying to scam the bond issuers. With a perfunctory gesture, the deal was done; the commissioners approved the matter and the meeting recessed for a break to let the crowd who “may be timid and not want to approach the podium” to talk to the great and wonderful people representing the great and wonderful companies.

Fulcrum Bio-Energies is a small, privately held company. While I am can only imagine they will be getting some taxpayer love because of the “greenness” of their business model, they aren’t asking Storey County Taxpayers to pay for their infrastructure improvements directly.

During public comment I made a brief statement about the contrast of the two deals; Fulcrum Bio-Energies was raising the money and expecting to pay it back without the benefit of Corporate Welfare, I mean, a Public Private Partnership.

commissioners approve pipeline

Back To The Pipeline Proposal

Under the current plan, Telsa, Switch, Google and others (The Developers), will pay for the treatment center and the delivery system directly out of their own pockets without asking for taxpayer involvement.

They are asking Storey County Officials to borrow money by issuing bonds that will later be sold/transferred to the State of Nevada. Storey County will then create the SAD from an area at TRIC that currently contains barren unimproved land owned by the Developers. The Developers within this SAD will be expected to make the payments on the bonds from this Special Assesment. The bond terms will be somewhere between 20 and 30 years and will require roughly $3 million dollars a year in debt service.

Once the bonds are acquired and the pipeline is built, the pipeline along with the processing facility and the delivery system will become the property of the TRIC-GID.

Next, the county will create a TIA. First, the County will analyze the current taxes generated by the land within the TIA. This baseline should be very small as the land is unimproved and zoned agricultural thus generating very little in tax revenue. Once this baseline is established, it will be the measure to calculate the reimbursement of the developers for the money they spent on the bond debt service.

As the properties are improved; building built and filled with servers or manufacturing or whatever, the TIA will siphon all funds above the established baseline to repay the Developers for the money they paid on the bonds inside the SAD.

I asked on the record that if these funds were not otherwise diverted, they would be used just like all other tax revenue. Reluctantly, everyone agreed that the diverted funds would have been used by the State and County as they saw fit.

They agreed that, just like the old deal, tax dollars that would otherwise be used to provide services to the taxpayers of Nevada and Storey County will instead be given to some of the Country’s wealthiest companies.

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Long on Flash, Short on Substance

The presentation was much like the last one with well-paid pitchmen leading the charge. Jeremy Aguero of Applied Analysis (the guys spending $ 750 million dollars of public money to finance the Raiders Stadium) was back in full pitch mode. However, there was very little actual substance. How much per year are the payments> I had to make a phone call after the meeting to get you the information in the article because it was not to be found in the presentation. Other information missing or obscured include how they came up with the figure of $ 35 million and what protection we have against is becoming $50 or $75 million, what the exact terms of the bonds are (20, 25 and 30 years were all listed) and so on. I guess it’s like Nancy Pelosi said, “We have to pass it to know what’s in it”. Luckily the Commissioners did just that.

What’s The Dang Deal With The TRIC-GID?

During my public comment, what began as a well-planned set of questions about the proposal went sideways when I started talking about the TRIC-GID. I was trying to clarify the troubling picture of the TRIC-GID my research has uncovered.  Sadly, I didn’t succeed.

In fact, I went so far into the topic that Commissioner McBride reminded me that the agenda item was not about the TRIC-GID and suggested I was grandstanding by not making my point quickly and clearly. For that, I apologize to Commissioner McBride and the audience.

I’ll save my findings with the TRIC-GID for another article.

The Heard and The Unheard; Public Comment

A parade of glad-handers from the “private partners” thanked the County for committing taxpayer dollars to fund their pipeline project.

Nicole Barde read a brief yet powerful statement into the record about the fact that (as usual) the residents whose tax dollars are being used to reimburse the wealthy companies were not in the conversation. Like the TRIC-GID, I will address her comments in a forthcoming article.

Carson City Resident, Comstock Mining Executive, and Storey County Taxpayer Scott Jolcover came to the podium and declared his support for the proposal, calling it “good business”.

Jay Carmona attended the meeting but chose not to share his thoughts on the pipeline proposal with the Commissioners or the audience. I reached out to Mr. Carmona via email after the meeting requesting his perspective and he replied with “no comment”.


Listen to the audio of it all here:

The Packet material can be found here:

pipelinepres2018
Elect Sam Toll For County Commissioner

About Sam Toll

Sam Toll is a native of Gold Hill and returned home in 2016 after 35 years in the Sacramento Valley. He enjoys old cars and loud music. And writing.

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17 comments

  1. It doesn’t sound like Mr. Carmona is a serious candidate. “No comment” on an issue of this importance seems like the wrong answer to me. He should voice his opinion on the matter if he is running for office, even if his opinion is “I need to research it more”. Very disappointing.

    • Mr. Bloyd-

      Your criticism is unfounded, and unfair. As is Mr. Toll subtly creating a narrative that leads his readers to a negative conclusion while the implicit words he use appear neutral.

      Sam is not just a member of the press- he is a member of Carmona’s opponent’s CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE. In and of itself, that level of civic involvement is a laudable thing, and to be expected in a small community like ours, where each of us wear multiple hats.

      It also creates a conflict that puts Carmona in a tough situation. Because what Sam publishes is a mixture of reporting and opinion, ANY statement given to him is subject to filtering, commentary, implicit or explicit bias, and manipulation.

      Let me clear- I support Sam’s right to all those things, and support him expressing his opinions unequivocally. I think it is good and healthy for him to do so.

      I also think his personal allegiances create a situation where Jay is justifiably hesitant to dive in, and criticizing him for doing so is unfair.

      I know that Jay is working hard to prepare statements and position papers on multiple local issues.

      Just because he doesn’t meet Sam’s arbitrary deadline for comment, and chooses to create his own response (instead of surrendering his words to be presented as his opponent’s supporter sees fit) does not make him a less serious candidate.

      Your criticism is unfounded. Did you call Jay to find out what he thinks?

      If not, you are grandstanding, and an apology would be appropriate.

      • Clay,

        Thank you for your kind words.

        Mr. Bloyd is entitled to his opinion that Mr. Carmona could have been more forthcoming, as you are in raising the question of ethical reporting.

        I am supporting Ms. Barde directly. I have disclosed this in the past and continue to do so moving forward.

        I support her because I feel there is no better-qualified person in the county to protect the interests of the citizens and taxpayers from the big money interests who want to benefit at the expense of all of us. The pipeline proposal represents exactly the kind of thing I personally feel needs to stop. Her years-long record of vigorous and energetic defense of the taxpayers and most vulnerable in our county rings loudly with me.

        For the record, I did reach out to Mr. Carmona. I spoke to him directly after the commissioners meeting and sent him an email asking for his comment about the pipeline proposal later that afternoon.

        Mr. Carmona’s exact words are off the record and therefore not contained in the story. If I were guilty of filtration and manipulation and anything other than a reporter with integrity, I would have pushed what he actually said to me after the meeting and in his email. Doing so would have been worse than grandstanding; it would have been irresponsible and utterly wrong.

        Again, to be clear, Mr. Carmona responded with “No Comment”. That is his official, on the record response to the gentle readers of The Teller.

        It makes sense to do research and not give a knee-jerk reaction to the proposal. He may need to do more research and craft a thoughtful response. He may or may not have read through the Commissioners Packet and done the heavy lifting to be prepared to ask questions during the meeting. I don’t know what he did or didn’t do to prepare for this important issue.

        As far as an arbitrary deadline, time waits for no (wo)man. The news is the news. Two days is plenty of time for Mr. Carmona to consult with his handlers and craft a response.

        I don’t know what he may or may not have been thinking, but I do know what he told me: “No Comment”

        As far as the subtle narrative is concerned, I will not lower myself to dirty politics.

        I will, however, report the facts.

        Similarly, I will not compromise on the facts. If either candidate makes a misstep or has an issue people should know about, I will hold them to account. Both candidates actions or inactions are subject to scrutiny; it is not smearing or attacking them by reporting them.

        In this case, I simply reported on the facts. At the Commissioner meeting, one Candidate chose to stand and be heard, and one explicitly chose to remain silent, even when asked.

        Those are the facts.

    • I too agree with Stephen Bloyd as I know candidate Jay Carmona must have an opinion as he attended the Lockwood (River People) meeting concerning the pipeline. In fact, I thought that Jay was the one who wanted our part of Storey Co where the pipeline will actually be, to understand the information and problems. Therefore, I was surprised at Jay’s answer.

      Jay, could you please inform the voters what you believe and where you stand?

      Clay’s Post is regretful.

      I thank GOD for Sam Toll who has bravely stood up to bullies for a FREE PRESS.

      As far as a comment about the RENO “shitty deal”, I have been very clear as to why this will not be good for Storey Co taxpayers. The City of Reno for years has been trying to GIVE AWAY their waste as they were above and beyond their allotted amount for the overburdened sewer plant. I have attended hundreds of meetings over the years watching this “stinking deal”. Now these corporations have created the City of Reno’s “wet-dream” to pay for their excess “CRAP” having the taxpayers of Storey use our money we need for our own infrastructure and benefits, taking all the responsibility and getting PROMISES! I think I have heard this great deal before and that corporation seems to be in the news daily!

      I voiced my rather crude comments at the Lockwood meeting to the Storey Co officials and public. I am very sorry that that meetings overwhelming concerns did not reach the ears of our “representatives” posing as our County Commissioners or County Manager!

      Thank you Nicole, Sam, Jay or any Citizen who attends these meetings. Unfortunately, some of us have to work etc and are not PAID by our corporations to attend.

  2. First, I want to say that if Ms. Barde or Mr. Carmona are elected to the County Commission, I will be very happy. I applaud both of them for running, and in particular Mr. Carmona, as he took the biggest risk of time and money by running opposed against an incumbent in a primary election. It wasn’t a done deal from the start that he’d be on the ballot in November, as it is for Ms. Barde, who is running as an Independent and had no opposition in the primary.

    That said, in reading Clay Mitchell’s comment, I got the distinct impression that Mitchell claims that if Carmona had given an opinion on the pipeline deal to Editor Sam Toll, that his opinion would have been paraphrased in a way that would make him appear less knowledgeable than Barde. Now, if Toll had quoted Carmona, which I’m sure he would have, I sincerely doubt that Toll would have changed his words, to modify Carmona’s opinion, or framed it in such a way as to make him look bad compared to Barde.

    The underlying charge in Mitchell’s comment is that Toll skews news in an attempt to make his views prevail. While I agree with this to a certain extent, what I find that Toll does is frame the news in an (a successful) attempt to point out the absurdity of what is happening in our county government. So far, I haven’t seen him in the “Teller” change actual comments/quotes, numbers, details of contracts, dates, etc.. In fact, I’ve seen him issue a blanket challenge to anyone to prove him wrong (about what he’s reporting). Right now, Toll has been involved in a months-long court case in which he was sued for what he printed in this news source. He’s spending countless hours and many thousands of dollars fighting for freedom of the press. This case will probably go to the Nevada Supreme Court.

    I seldom comment here, but if you have read my posts, you know that I’m not a Sam Toll sycophant. I have disagreed with him, in print, in the past. But in this case I just had to say something when Toll was being accused of misquoting someone in an attempt to promote Ms. Barde’s candidacy. I doubt that Mr. Carmona would use this as an excuse to not respond to Toll. Both candidates have shown the highest degree of civility in this commissioner’s race, and as I said at the beginning of my comment, I would be very happy to have either of them as my commissioner. It is extremely regretful that both can’t serve on the commission simultaneously!

    • Cynthia,

      Thank you for your kind words.

      Sam

    • Ms Kennedy!
      I applaud your words.
      And applause from the Humbly brilliant Sam DNA Dehne is a very rare thing.
      Unless he is applauding himself.. which he deservedly does more than anybody
      in history (except maybe Trump.. who does not deserve applause anywhere
      near as deservedly as Sam DNA).
      Why does Sam DNA self-aggrandize himself so ubiquitously? BECAUSE HE
      HAS TO. The Reno media is scared to treachery by their fear to even print
      his name.. good, bad, or ugly.
      Sam has done more for Reno on more Battlefields than the next 27 “important”
      people added together.
      Just a tiny bit of Sam DNA’s documented Beyond-Biblical Proof: http://www.renocitizen.com/samvictories.htm
      Excuse the non-sequitor from the headlined issue.. but I wasn’t the initiator.
      Now! Back to the pork barrel pipeline.
      Sam DNA Dehne
      PS
      I would pay $100/week for Sam Toll to be the reporter overseeing Reno govt and
      politics. Instead of the pipsqueak cowards that hide from Sam DNA like peeants.

    • Hi Cynthia-

      In many ways, I’m in the same camp you are. I would be pleased to have either of these candidates as our next commissioner.

      Let me address the assertions that you made in your comment about my remarks.

      First, I didn’t say that Sam would change Jay’s words, or paraphrase them, nor did I mean to imply that.

      I was pretty clear in what I said, and meant it. You can’t pretend that Sam is simply a reporter. This platform is a mixture of reporting AND a healthy dose of commentary… opinion. We don’t get to pretend when it’s convenient that it is just one or the other.

      So while I have no doubt that Sam would accurately transmit any comment or statement from Carmona, it is likely to be accompanied by a healthy amount of editorializing. Once you surrender your words to the press, they are free to include or not include anything you say… any PART of what you say, and (intentionally or not) the way they present those words often creates a narrative… one that you may or may not agree with.

      I’ll take one example from this very article. At the top, in the bullet points: “Deafening silence from one significant member of the audience”

      Is it really? Is it big news that Jay chose not to give a comment to Sam (a member of his opponent’s campaign committee) really a deafening silence? Is that “reporting the news”? Or editorializing?

      I have dealt with the press on numerous occasions. I have felt the pressure that they exert as they feel the pressure to produce work product (in this case, it’s not an editor breathing down Sam’s neck, but the self-imposed pressure to get an article out in a timely fashion)… that gets exerted onto those that the reporter would like to contribute a statement to their article.

      So please don’t misconstrue what I said. If Sam ONLY reported journalistically, it would be a different story. But he is an opinion journalist. Which is not a bad thing… it’s just not the same, and can’t be treated or considered the same as a straight up reporter.

  3. PIPELINE? SCAMMING THE PUBLIC – AGAIN.
    It never ceases to amaze me how sleazy and chinzee these supposedly extremely wealthy people can be.. when it comes to making taxpayers pay for their Schemes.
    There are people involved in this self-serving TRIC Pipeline (it’s really CRIC, “Citizens’ Reno Industrial Complex”) Scheme who could supposedly pay for it with their pocket change.
    Yet they are naturally pre-disposed to fleecing the Public.
    I guess they do it for something to laugh about over their martinis.
    The list of TRIC (CRIC) things the citizens have paid for is almost endless:
    Gigafactory ($43 million for starters.. taxes)
    USA Parkway (over $100 million.. taxes)
    Taxpayers paid for Pennington mansion for TRIC (CRIC)
    Taxpayer-funded TRIC (CRIC) attacks against Law Enforcement, The Sheriff, and your Newspaper
    etc, etc
    And they will keep on doing it.. as long as the apathetic citizens allow it.
    Sam DNA Dehne
    PS
    Thank you for your Patriotic and honest reporting!

  4. Sam-

    I’m not questioning your journalistic integrity. But likewise, you can’t pretend that you are not an opinion journalist. Your material includes both reporting AND commentary/editorializing. And there is nothing wrong with that. I truly believe that.

    That being said, you can’t deny the difficult situation that creates for someone who you don’t support. They know that you editorialize… and as such, you should be considered and treated differently than a traditional news reporter.

    I have to laugh at your comment, because it illustrates my point:
    “As far as an arbitrary deadline, time waits for no (wo)man. The news is the news. Two days is plenty of time for Mr. Carmona to consult with his handlers and craft a response.”

    Two days is (your arbitrary opinion of) plenty of time. You feel the pressure to get a news article out. Arbitrary.

    A subtle narrative is not necessarily dirty politics. A subtle narrative is the story you are trying to tell, and reflects your worldview. Whether you acknowledge it or not, you frame your reporting (and more heavily your commentary) in accordance with your world view and biases, implicit and explicit. And I, as the reader, filter your work product by what I perceive and know about your world view and biases, in an attempt to put it in proper context.

    I would be happy to discuss with you in person some of the occasions I have felt that your biases have led you to distort “the facts”. I don’t feel that way often, but it happens. I’m sure I do the same thing.

    Regardless, it’s simply not fair to claim you are “just a reporter” when that is the most convenient role to play, and then editorialize or advocate positions when it suits you.

    Yes, Mr. Bloyd is entitled to his opinion. As I am entitled to my opinion that his criticism is not warranted, which is why I made the counterpoint.

    Just because Carmona doesn’t choose to issue his statement through your outlet (and I say wisely so) doesn’t mean he won’t make a comment. It doesn’t mean he’s not a serious candidate. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t take the issue seriously. It also doesn’t mean that his silence (to you) is deafening. To characterize it as such is editorializing.

    Which is your right and privilege, and I encourage the practice. But please don’t pretend it is simply reporting “the facts”. The fact is that for him, you are not an impartial party.

    • Clay,

      Thank you again for your kind words.

      I strongly encourage you to contact me immediately anytime facts that I report on are inaccurate. I have made mistakes in the past and immediately corrected them immediately. Integrity matters.

      As you know, I present facts that have a storey to tell (pun!). In crafting the article, I frame facts with the storey (again!) of the impact of the facts on Storey County residents.

      This is nothing new. The Fourth Estate was privately funded when our country was founded. Alexander Hamilton started the New York Post as a platform to promote the Federalist Party and slam Thomas Jefferson. It wasn’t until the 1840’s when Horace Greeley created the nations’s first Editorial Page in the New York Tribune.

      I wrote the “time waits for no (wo)man” sentence with the memory of Mr. Carmona and my conducting two separate “town hall meetings” in the VCH and Rainbow Bend on the subject. Mr. Carmona and I discussed the previous deal (which is identical to this “deal” in terms of using public funds to finance the pipeline) literally for hours. I knew intimately where he stood on the “deal” then. He was 100% opposed to using taxpayer funds to finance the pipeline. Period.

      For him to remain silent, here on day 8 after the Commissioner meeting and day 15 after the meeting agenda revealed the “deal”, should make one question if he no longer opposes using taxpayer money to finance the pipeline. His comment to me after the commissioners meeting (which I have not published) makes me personally question it even more.

      The job of Storey County Commissioner is not for the timid or faint of heart. We need strong, principled decision makers leading us. If Carmona has changed his mind, he owes the voters to let them know.

      As far as advising him to stay out of the Teller, that is your/his call. The Teller has a 5x reach of the Comstock Chronicle on a slow week and beats social media because people actually read what is here instead of tooling thru and not reading the feed. By following your advise he is cheating himself out of a juicy swath of Storey County Voters.

      More importantly, by not communicating with The Teller’s audience, two things might happen:
      1. The Teller’s audience may feel Mr. Carmona does not consider them relevant and vote accordingly, and
      2. I may be compelled to use a taste more “opinion journalism” than I otherwise might.

      Thanks for reading the Teller!

  5. First, some readers might be confused by the two “Sams” commenting here. There is Sam Toll, the Editor of this site, and Sam Dehne. He’s NOT Sam Toll. http://www.renocitizen.com/resume.htm

    I still stand by my opinion that Sam Toll would not have distorted Jay’s comments. I haven’t talked to Jay about the pipeline, but since he saw the same presentation I viewed last year about the subject, and it seemed that everyone in the room except the presenter was incredulous about the proposal, that Jay probably feels the same as Nicole.

    Over a week ago, I posted a challenge on the Highlands Chat List for someone to refute Nicole’s report on the County Commissioner’s meeting, and how this pipeline deal was presented. I truly wanted someone to tell us that Nicole had it all wrong and this really was a win-win for Storey County taxpayers. I wanted that response because I like to believe that our public servants work for us. No one answered that challenge. But, Jay had to have seen it. He must have been thinking about this pipeline deal for some time, so why isn’t he giving an opinion? As an alternative, I wish Jay had said, “I’m issuing a press release to the media regarding my stance on the pipeline. Go to my website, to read it: https://www.carmonaforcommissioner.com/platform .”

    In this commissioner’s race, it’s IMPERATIVE that we know where each candidate stands on the issues, and their understanding of them. How is this county going to go forward into the future and preserve or improve our quality of life here and get what we deserve for the millions of dollars of infrastructure for which we are on the hook to pay for? Yes, this is a loan that was provided by Roger Norman, and the payments are to come from tax revenue. But, if that revenue is diverted to pay for a privately owned pipeline, how will that debt ever be settled? Are we to act like our federal gov’t and kick the can of this debt down the road for our great, great grandchildren to pay?

    • Cynthia,
      Thank you for reiterating that I am not Sam Toll. Sam Toll is the great editor/reporter for
      this newspaper.
      Sam DNA is the Guard Angel “against” Reno media and bureaucrats.
      And speaking for “Sam” confusion, I, Sam DNA got rid of Reno Gazette
      govt/political reporters in the last 3 years.
      But guess who they replaced those folks with!
      3 (more) people named Sam.
      Thus within this 50 mile radius there are 5 reporters named Sam.
      But only 2 of the Sam’s report the Truth.
      Sam DNA Dehne http://www.renocitizen.com

  6. Comstock Chronical, Aug. 10, 2018 issue:

    (at the recent County Commissioners’ meeting) “Adam Kramer, Switch’s executive vice president of innovation, explained the project’s importance to his company. “What is so important to us about this project, is the water intensity of what is going on at the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, and what that economic impact is…and especially to have this water come from a resource that would otherwise be adding pollutants into the Truckee River, which is the life bed of Northern Nevada. (To) be able to use that for a mechanical purpose and be able to leave water in the river is something that is extremely important to the conservation and environmental focus of a company like Switch.”

    I read this and couldn’t believe my eyes. He’s saying that Switch, without this pipeline would TAKE water out of the Truckee – really? Again, that without the pipeline, Switch would take significant amounts of water out of the Truckee?!!!!   Do you know of ANY company that can do that? and that without the pipeline, MORE “pollutants” would be going into the Truckee!!!

    The EPA has been around for 50 years and to my knowledge, Reno is not flushing “pollutants” into the Truckee. It would be against the law and the Paiute Indian Tribe would raise holy hell as those “pollutants” would float down the Truckee to Pyramid Lake, which they own. Why is Mr. Kramer trying to bamboozle us? I diplomatically use “bamboozle” rather than another word. 

    I’m all for ANYTHING to improve TRIC, but the businesses there should pay for those improvements. I am not a bean counter and I know zip about “bonds (that would be) issued by Storey County and purchased by the state, a transaction authorized by the state legislature to allow county projects to benefit by the state’s low interest rates.” Could someone please explain this? Who pays in the end? Where does the money come from to pay for these bonds. Where does the money come from that makes up the bonds.

    I’m just trying to get some clarity on this pipeline deal.

    Cynthia Kennedy

    • Cynthia,

      Under the proposal the County would borrow $35 million dollars by selling a Bond. The state will buy that bond. Bonds carry an interest rate to the buyer so when the state gets it’s annual installment payment from the county it will be higher than what they bought it for….say 5%.

      Once the County gets the $35 million from the sale of the bond it will pay for the pipeline.

      The County will create a Special Assessment District to assess the companies who will use this water the amount of the bond payment ( to the state) plus an additional 1% interest so that the County can pay for the administration of the bond.

      So far so good. It looks like the companies are going t repay the county for the loan/bond it just took out.

      BUT…

      Then the county will create a “Tax Increment District” where any ( state and County ) taxes over and above what is CURRENTLY being collected in that district will go to reimburse the companies in the Special Assessment District for their Bond payments to the County. This means that the County’s residents don’t get the future tax revenues from this TIA and we are paying for the pipeline.

      A shell game and highway robbery.

      Below is the link to the presentation.

      https://www.dropbox.com/s/e209m2ss9a3d0cf/pipelinepres2018.pdf?dl=0

      Nicole “NOT WITH OUR MONEY” Barde

      • Nicole,
        Thanks for providing the real evidence.
        IE- Billionaires fleecing the (Storey, Reno, Nevada, and even America) proletariat . AGAIN.
        And don’t be surprised if TRIC (CRIC – Citizens’ Reno Industrial Complex..
        ie, Gilman, Norman, and cronies) don’t charge to have the pipeline
        “use” their (barren desert) land for the pipeline that will benefit them. JUST LIKE THEY DID WHEN THEY FLEECED THE CITIZENS FOR “CITIZENS’ USA Highway” barren desert land.
        PS
        It just never ends with these guys.
        Corporate Welrafe Pork Barrel real socialism.
        Communism TRIC (CRIC) style:
        “From each according to his apathy. To each according to his wealth.”
        Sam DNA Dehne

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