IVGID #7
This question is advisory only: Do you support the reorganization of the Incline Village General Improvement District into the unincorporated Town of Incline Village?
Explanation: Incline Village is currently organized as a General Improvement District with authority over water, sewer, recreation, garbage and refuse services. An NRS 269 unincorporated town is a general purpose government which provides for the health, safety and welfare of its citizens. As a general purpose government, the proposed Town of Incline Village will have additional authority over matters involving land use planning, animal control, nuisance control and abatement. The additional authority for land use planning will be advisory to Washoe County. Additional services may be transferred to the Town at a later date by and with the concurrence of Washoe County.
The Town of Incline Village will have all the rights and obligations of the existing General Improvement District. It is anticipated that the members of the initial town board will be District Board members as of June 30, 2009 upon appointment by the Washoe County Board of County Commissioners. The existing 474 Fire Protection District and its boundaries will remain unaffected by the implementation of the new Town. The initial boundaries of the Town will be the current boundaries of the North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District. The General Improvement District will be dissolved upon the establishment of the Town of Incline Village.
In order to insure the continuation of the powers of governance, administration and the bonding authority which general improvement districts currently enjoy, Incline Village will request the 2009 Nevada Legislature to amend the NRS 269 Town law to provide for a seamless transition from a general improvement district to an unincorporated town. It is anticipated the 2009 Nevada Legislature will pass the measure if the voters approve this ballot question to reorganize the Incline Village General Improvement District into the Town of Incline Village.
Argument "In Favor" of IVGID #7
Ballot question IVGID #7 asks for your opinion on whether to convert IVGID to a Nevada town form of government to be called the Town of Incline Village. The concept is to take the existing facilities, personnel, assets and services of IVGID as a base and transfer a few services currently provided by Washoe County to the newly created town.
It‘s now time to better serve our residents with a more complete form of local government. The new town would not be an expansion of government, but a consolidation. It would be getting Incline/Crystal Bay taxpayer funds back from the county and spending them more efficiently, while bringing government closer to the community it serves.
Under the current system Washoe County is fully responsible for planning and zoning in Incline Village/Crystal Bay. County staff reviews plans, makes recommendations then forwards them to commissioners for approval. If IVGID becomes a town plan reviews will be done by Incline Village Town employees, projects would be vetted at local meetings and town-approved reviews would be submitted to the County for approval. The town would be allowed to create local design standards, to control growth and better plan for the future of our community. The most recent county master plans were completed in 1996 using data from the five years earlier. The new town will update and create new community plans which, by law, IVGID cannot do. Incline/Crystal Bay deserves better long term planning and will be better served by local oversight and design.
Our town will be able to implement nuisance ordinance and enforcement. All ordinances would be brought to a vote by the town board in a local public forum prior to passage, once again allowing for local input and control.
Washoe County will transfer $366,654 per year (to be adjusted annually for inflation) to offset costs of 3 additional staff to provide these services. This is less than 1% of IVGID's current budget and will not increase the size of government but consolidate services currently provided. Ballot proposal IVGID #7 will get our government closer to the community it serves.
Rebuttal to Argument "In Favor" of IVGID #7
Long on "concept", way short on how to pay for it.
The proponents' unsupported assertion that a yes vote "will not increase the size of government" and that Washoe County will "offset costs" leaving taxpayers no worse off is flatly contradicted, however, by someone who should know. In an August 19, 2008 Memo described as "a direct, simple reality check [that] conversion to a new governmental structure will cost money which Washoe County will not be subsidizing", IVGID's General Manager identifies 117 questions which would take 2,000 staff hours to answer regarding the ramifications and true costs of changing over to a Town. That Memo proves that a "yes" vote by you will authorize another bottomless pit for weary taxpayers, and a Full Employment Act for lawyers, lobbyists, and accountants. Questions like "how much District General Counsel Brooke will charge the District for doing the legal requirements, how much it will cost to convert letterhead, collateral, etc, and ... the extra expense (unbudgeted) of District Lobbyist Mary Walker's monthly fee going from $2,000 to $3,000 to assist in the conversion ..." remain unanswered, like scores of other questions.
Government is best when it governs least. Vote No!
Argument "In Opposition" to IVGID #7
Passage of this measure will raise our taxes and expose IVGID residents to liabilities and expenses which the don't-worry-be-happy proponents have not even considered.
Right now, as a General Improvement District with only four limited functions to perform, our Recreation Fees have doubled over the last decade, and water, sewage and trash rates push steadily higher year after year. Expanding local government expands also the ways money in fees and taxes can be extracted. NRS 269.170, for only one example, authorizes the new town to "fix and collect a license tax" on every sort of businesses and profession, a juicy source of revenue for any hungry government. And the inhibitions on spending imposed by Nevada laws governing General Improvements Districts -- such as NRS 318.085 limiting Trustees' compensation to "no more than $9,000 per year" -- would be out the window. Why would voters grant additional powers to a government that can't even get it right with the limited authority they already have?
Finally, passage of this measure would wipe the town of Crystal Bay off the face of the map by absorbing it into the new town called "Incline Village." The new name could have been "Incline Village/Crystal Bay" or some neutral third name, but the proponents arrogantly ignored the sensitivities of people who have called Crystal Bay home for generations, and voters should reject such a raw abuse of power.
So-called "Independent Incline" is a vanity piece of legislation promoted by people who haven't done their homework, and who blithely (and inaccurately) claim that "nothing changes by virtue of becoming a Town." There is absolutely no reason to dissolve the present General Improvement District form of government whose taxing powers and limitations are at least known.
Vote No on Question 7.
Rebuttal to Argument "In Opposition" to IVGID #7
Opponents' allusion to increased taxes does not compute. Transfer of services from a county to a town must, under Nevada law, include the money spent by the county on the services it rendered within the town. The change must be revenue neutral.
Past taxes increases under IVGID occurred because of who voters elected, not the form of government. This would be true of a town as it would of a county or other unit of government. Moreover town board members will have the same limits on compensation as IVGID trustees.
Crystal Bay will not disappear. It houses the main post office in the north Lake area. The name "Incline" was selected because this community was the site of an historic 19th century incline railway that transported logs to the mountain top to be flumed to the valley for use in the Comstock mines.
A town form of government will enhance home rule, allow for a broader array of municipal services, and permit local control of development design standards without, in itself, causing new or increased taxes. A general improvement district cannot engage in such activities. It's time for Incline Village/Crystal Bay to have governance structure that best suits its citizens.