The Storey Teller News and commentary on what’s really going on in Storey County.
I am cross posting Nicole Barde’s usual yeoman report on the highlights and lowlights of the most recent Storey County Commissioners Meeting held at the Courthouse with the Million Dollar Parking Lot on September 19th, 2017.
I found this meeting remarkable on several counts.
- A Special Use Permit was approved for a Chemical Plant that has the ability to shut down Highway 80, Interstate Rail Service and the Power Plant that supplies power to Northern Nevada and parts of Northern California in the event of an incident. And it’s within sight of the Truckee. There is a reason plants of this type are in China and Taiwan and not in the USA, they are VERY dangerous.
- Pat Whitten continues to consolidate his stranglehold on County Power and Money. This latest move allows Mr. Whitten to use his cloak of invisibility to use taxpayer money to improve TRIC. All future developer improvements, shouldered by developers everywhere on the planet except here in “The Richest Place On Earth”, made at TRIC that will be added to our 45 million dollar bill will now be Administered at the pleasure and delight of Pat Whitten. This should be the responsibility of a Taxpayer Watchdog not a TRIC lapdog.
- Illustrating the need for a watchdog not a lapdog, yet another “worthless” stripe of land was given to TRIC so they can wrap it into other land and sell the package at a tidy profit. This would be a great deal for everyone if we got to remove money from the $45 Million debt. Instead, it is a spectacular deal for the band of merry TRICsters and their client. The Storey County Taxpayer gets the routine sphincter massage with the splintered end of a telephone pole. Again.
- The County is going to use Eminent Domain (the point of a gun) to steal a historic county landmark from a 40 year Storey County Resident with zero transparency as to what they plan on doing with it. Storey County has a checkered history of buying historic properties (The VCTC parking lot aka Black and Howell and the abandoned Gold Hill Train Depot) and getting the best value for all Storey County Taxpayers. While current and former Bank of America employees may consider this kind of thing sport, we find it the most disgusting display of government aggression next to murder.
As I like to say (borrowing a term from the original Gonzo Reporter), When the Going Gets Weird, The Weird Turn Pro.
This meeting reveals yet again Storey County’s unique brand of professional weirdness…
I will post on these items separately in the coming week as each one demands it’s own drill down.
Stay Tuned.
Editors Note: We have gotten emails, calls and had people chase us down on C street asking me why we haven’t posted anything meaty in nearly a month. Rest assured we haven’t stopped working on the Teller. However, events have conspired forcing us to focus attention elsewhere. Much to the dismay of the people who think they own this county and the delight of the people who actually do, we are back.
Whoop!
By Nicole Barde – Bardeblog.com
Summary of the September 19th 2017 Storey County Commission Meeting
AS THE SOUP NAZI WOULD SAY…………NO SOUP FOR YOU!!!!
THE JACK MCGUFFEY DEMANDED -LANCE GILMAN PROMISED PROPERTY TAX RELIEF/ROLLBACK/WINDFALL ISN’T GOING TO HAPPEN FOR THE CITIZENS OF STOREY COUNTY…… WELL….. IT IS ALWAYS HAPPENING FOR TRIC AND THE COMPANIES LOCATED THERE…..JUST NOT FOR THE REST OF US…. WE’LL BE LUCKY IF OUR TAXES DON’T GO UP…BUT STAY TUNED FOR MORE ACTIVITY WITH NO RESULTS ON THE PROMISE THAT KEEPS ON SLIPPING.
AT LEAST SOMEONE IS (ALWAYS) GETTING TREATED WELL BY STOREY COUNTY…. FOR THE SECOND TIME IN A MONTH ANOTHER FREE LAND GIVEBACK TO TRIC IS JUST WONDERFUL FOR TRIC ….NOT SO WONDERFUL IS THE POTENTIAL EMINENT DOMAIN LAND THEFT FROM REGULAR CITIZENS BEING CONSIDERED FOR THE FREIGHT DEPOT IN VC.
Read the full article here:
This is a response from TRIC project manager Kris Thompson to Nicole’s post:
This will respond to Ms. Barde.
Ms. Barde’s summary is completely dishonest.
I hope the readers know by now that what Ms. Barde says in her summary has no connection to the truth of what actually happens at the meetings.
First off, her claims are contradictory. Her first claim is that the “fix is in” between TRI and the County government because there was a very small land reconveyance. But then she criticizes Lance because he has not yet been able to coerce the County into giving property owners a property tax rebate – eg so she is saying here that Lance doesn’t control the County?. Well which is it????
The Tax Rebate issue is not dead. Lance is pushing for it personally and I am as well. The County government has had enough money to benefit senior employees with higher salaries and retirement buyouts and to increase County union pay and benefits. Some of this perfectly appropriate of course. For decades our County lagged behind others in employer salaries and benefits. And it is a good thing it’s being fixed. And lord knows the County employees work hard and are good and professional at what they do. But when I hear the argument that there isn’t any money, not one penny available, to reward residents, I have a hard time buying it.
The County has a number of options available here – There are legal ways to provide tax reductions for residents only, and the county has been given that concept. The County has been told that rebates would be legal as well. And there are other options available. There is a workshop scheduled for next month and I look forward to seeing what happens there.
The “free land giveaway” to TRI, is simply a reconveyance of very thin strip of land in a drainage area to allow an incoming business to put a slope there so their building pad is stable. It’s called a slope easement.” TRI is not charging the buyer for this strip of land. TRI originally gave this land to the County free of charge. But this allows the County to charge taxes on the land to the incoming buyer. So let’s summarize – right now, the land is doing nothing and the County does not make revenue from it. After this transfer the County gets a new business on the land adjacent which will produce revenue and can gain property taxes. It’s a no brainer.
Ms. Barde would love to see Storey County government turn into a new San Francisco. She is a radical liberal. Another Nancy Pelosi in the flesh. She thinks business is the enemy. She believes the government should be large and overbearing. That the private sector should have to beg the government for action, that if a business needs action or services from the government that the business should be punished financially and pay through the nose for whatever they might need. In her mind, there is no such thing as economic development, unless its the government grabbing more from the private sector.
If she had her way there would be no TRI. No one would have ever made a deal on her terms. Readers here will remember how she ranted that the Tesla deal was a terrible mistake, and that it never should have happened. That would be news to the 5,000 workers that are today on site at the Gigafactory, and their families who are benefiting from those great jobs.
Can you imagine if someone like her was in a responsible position at the County. Businesses thinking of coming to Storey County would have one meeting with her, where whatever they would be asking for would be nitpicked and nitpicked, and they would walk out the door, shake their head, and never come back.
Last, it’s remarkable at how Ms Barde can nitpick just about anything. And with all that nitpicking, she never offers any real solutions or alternative approaches. She doesn’t want solutions, she wants problems for her own personal gain politically.
Thanks for considering my post.
This is my response to his post:
This will respond to Mr. Thompson.
While I can’t speak for Ms. Barde, I can tell you I am a principled conservative who looks at welfare recipients without small children to support with distaste.
Principled conservatives look at white collar welfare recipients like Tesla and TRIC, companies who can afford to pay their way but choose to freeload on taxpayer money, with venomous contempt.
Unlike the RINO’s in Storey County government and among the ranks of the band of merry TRICsters, principled conservatives view the continued corporate welfare at TRIC, soon to eclipse $110 Million with the pipeline “deal”, with vile disgust.
My initial assessment of the remarkable Commissioner Meeting conducted in the Courthouse with a Million Dollar parking lot on September 19th, 2017can be read here —> http://thestoreyteller.online/2017/09/21/storey-county-commissioners-meeting-report-nicole-barde/
I double dog dare you to compare me to Nancy “don’t know whats in it till we pass it” Pelosi.
The fix is in between Storey County Government and TRIC and has been for years.
Anyone paying attention sees this for what it is; as disgusting an example of collusion between government and business to benefit individual elected officials and the businesses at the expense of the Taxpayers anywhere in these United States.
Readers of this chat group will not need take your or my or Ms. Barde’s assessment of what went on at the Commissioners meeting but will get to hear you telling the commissioners that this “worthless” stripe of land is essential to cutting a real estate deal with an active buyer.
I like to use indisputable facts of what transpired to tell the story.
Stay Tuned.
As a taxpayer, I am delighted that you are conducting business at TRIC because at some point, once the abatements expire, Storey County perhaps may benefit one day. Perhaps.
But lets look at the latest land swindle err… reconveyance carefully:
If your proposed land deal is contingent on Storey County Taxpayers giving you the stripe of land, then that land is not worthless. It has value to you and to your client.
In the free market, something is worth only what someone else is willing to pay for it.
While you claim that you are not charging your client for the stripe of land, If you cannot close your pending deal without the stripe of land being part of the deal then it has value.
Having value, at the very least, giving the “worthless” stripe back to TRIC should incur a deduction from the $45 Million of developer improvements (corporate welfare) we somehow got snookered into owing you and your band of merry TRICsters.
Anything.
Even if it’s only 5 bucks.
That is how a this principled conservative who looks at freeloaders and thieves of taxpayer money with disgust sees things.
And now that Pat Whitten has the power to approve more corporate welfare and can add to the $45 Million dollar welfare balance our children and grand children will be paying back over the course of their lifetimes, I’ll bet you 5 bucks that the our debt to the TRICsters will double by the time Pat retires.
Principled Conservatives fight waste, abuse and corruption with nuclear weapons, grenade launchers, M60’s, Molotov cocktails, small arms fire, knives, sticks, stones and bare knuckles.
With every means available.
We certainly don’t lift our skirts every time some merry TRICster wanders by looking for a place to sniff for taxpayer handouts.
P.S. I want to play centerfield for the San Francisco Giants as much as Lance wants to deliver on his promised tax rebates, maybe more so. I’m giving even money on which one happens first.
Sam Toll – Editor
editor@thestoreyteller.online
http://www.thestoreyteller.online
775-583-8655
Proud Member of the Nevada Press Association