December 2018 Report Shows Twelfth Consecutive Monthly Decline

Nevada Department of Taxation released the monthly numbers for December 2018 yesterday. As we have been reporting, things have pretty much come to a standstill at TRIC.

At this point, we all see the picture. The growth at TRIC has come to an end. We shouldn’t expect to see increased action at TRIC for the foreseeable future. Until Jeffrey Burns and Lance Gilman start to invest in the opportunity zone Commissioner Gilman created at Lyon County’s expense, things are pretty much done at TRIC.

Getting a Zip Code Was Easier Than They Told Us

However, this months report contains data that should be troubling to the County. County officials described the tireless work our Washington D.C. lobbyist worked on to create a special Zip Code for TRIC. The new Zip Code will allow us to capture sales tax revenue lost to Washoe County.

Storey County pays $6000 a month for the Porter Group to lobby for the County in Washington D.C. The Porter Group is working on the Land Bill designed to help us to clear up land titles. They also worked on the Zip Code bill. According to County legend, the Porter Group toiled away at the Zip Code effort for years to no avail.

The Commissioners would provide frustrated updates on the lack of results on the Zip Code effort at Commission Meetings. Jack McGuffey at one point threw up his hands at the lack of progress noting that the change “would take a literal act of Congress” to accomplish.

Then one day in August of 2018, Dean Heller was having a conversation with a Senator from North Carolina who told him he did that sort of thing all time. Congress acted in September of 2018 and TRIC’s new Zip Code went into effect on October 11th, according to the United States Postal Service.

Zip Code Not Showing Expected Increase

With only three months of data to consider, it’s too early to tell if the Zip Code hasn’t panned out. However, in the first three months, we haven’t seen the expected bump. Based on what we have been led to believe by  Commissioner Gilman and County Manager Pat Whitten, we should have seen a marked increase in Taxable Sales figures. This is not yet the case.

 

Storey County taxpayers were told the only way companies like Switch, Tesla and Google would be able to grow is by “investing ” in a pipeline with them. Hopefully, our “investment” will pan out. Time will tell.

Stay Tuned

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