Fernley Getting Screwed on Consolidated Tax Revenue

Mayor Goodman has taken on a sizable issue of getting our fair share of the Consolidated Tax Revenues. Our city has been getting literally screwed by the “formula” that the State uses to calculate our portion of several types of taxes that are controlled in The State of Nevada Department of Taxation, revenue pot. For instance, Mesquite (about the same population of Fernley) gets about 7 Million, Winnemucca (smaller than Fernley) about 5 Million, even Gabbs gets $340,000, we get $140,000! If that doesn’t get your blood boiling I don’t know what should!

We have appealed to the Executive Branch, the Nevada State Department of Taxation, and they say that it is in the Legislature’s hands and actually gave our officials a booklet called “Consolidated Tax Formula for Dummies”, I’m not kidding folks. What an insult!

We paid lobbyists to make our plight known to the Legislature when they met earlier this year, and they as a body don’t seem to care since they apparently think it would be political suicide since it could take some funds out of every jurisdiction that gets a share of that money statewide. Our own, Assemblyman, Tom Grady does not support us getting our fair share of this revenue either.

What also really hurts our cause is that our own Lyon County certainly doesn’t seem to support us either, since Commission Chairman and Fernley resident Joe Mortensen testified against us at the Legislature hearing. I hear he believed that if Fernley got its share it would come totally out of Lyon County’s proceeds. That is not true, it would come out proportionally of everyone who shares in these revenues.

I plan on speaking to both of them to find out why they oppose Fernley getting our share of this revenue. Stay Tuned, I will report it here….

Cal

I have not posted here over the summer months, I probably needed some time to cool down from the heated debates concerning the last budget process.  Plus, I have been focused on business and trying to make a living, as the job of a City Councilman is part-time by design. But there are always continuing city issues to deal with. Some issues may seem small, but all issues are important to those that are affected by them. Sometimes very little seems to be going on, at least on the surface. It’s important each week, to dedicate some time to keeping an eye on the ball. I do come to city hall check my mail and make a point to meet with various staff, whether it’s the Mayor, fellow council members, department heads, legal department, or just walk around and say hi to employees. We really do have the best staff we have ever had at City Hall.

We should all be grateful to Mayor Goodman for taking on the sizable issue of getting our fair share of the Consolidated Tax Revenues. Our city has been getting literally screwed by the “formula” that the State uses to calculate our portion of several types of taxes that are controlled in a State of Nevada revenue pot. I’ll make a separate posting on that. This alone if successful could make a huge difference, but it may take years to succeed.

Jobs and growth are the only real long-term solutions to our bond issue. Fernley is positioned in a great place so that when the national economy improves, we will see a strong growth. But when will that happen? I am very frustrated with what’s going on in Washington, there seems to be no leadership. It appears that there will be no leadership in Washington until we have new leadership. The House is dominated by Republicans and the Senate by Democrats; the Executive Branch is MIA. No one can come to any kind of a compromise or concensus, because the perception and probably the reality is that which ever side caves in first will lose big in 2012. I will save my personal political beliefs for another posting on this website, because I don’t hide my political beliefs. How does this relate to our City?   The entangled  and paralyzed Federal Government is slowing down the national economy as well as our recovery here in Fernley. The only coming out of Washington are business killing new regulations, this has got to stop somewhere!

Our City Government has got to find a way to survive, we have no choice. Our Water Enterprise Fund is actually bankrupt, how that happened is well documented elsewhere on this website. The 2007 City Council voted in the rates increases to cover about half of the Water Treatment Plant, that hit our citizens hard over the past few years. Development and hookup fees were suppose to pay the other half. However, no one could have predicted then just how bad this economy was going to get and that development and homebuilding would virtually stop here in Fernley for this long.

Due to many cuts in our staff and non-essential spending our General Fund is in balance. The General Fund actually has had to “loan” the Water Enterprise Fund $865,000 to meet its obligations, along with that terrible $18 “Temporary” Assessment that I’m still angry about. We had no choice since defaulting on the bond is NOT an option.

So how do we survive? I do not believe that the General Fund can divvy up the same amount this coming budget year. We are working on receiving proceeds that are due from leasing water rights, but we haven’t gotten them yet. Hopefully, we will get it in time for the next fiscal year it will help, but not solve the problem.  We will not get this money the following year, so then what? I’ve spoken to every one of our Nevada Representatives in Congress, although I have yet to speak to Rep. Mark Amodie specifically about this issue as of yet, I’ve known him professionally for several years. My plan, it that we need the feds to help us acquire a stop-gap loan, only to cover our actual shortages in bond payments.  It is not borrowing more money, it is really just restructuring the current debt payments so that we have more time to pay our current debt off.  We can pay this back at the end of the bond payment period (about another 25 years), if we haven’t paid it back already at that point. This was an un-funded Federal Mandate and they have left us holding the total bag. We will pay for our plant, it’s a great plant that will serve our future needs, but it will take time before the economy recovers and we start really building here again. There are no grants available for something that has already built. I realize the Feds are having hard times too, we aren’t looking for a handout or even a bailout, just a Federally-backed line of credit that will be paid back with interest. Again we would only borrow against this if needed and continue to hold the line on spending.  When homebuilding and development begins again in the future we will not need to borrow anything against this line of credit.  The Enterprise Fund should be self-supporting and should not be draining all other revenue and resources from the city.

In the meantime, I will pledge to work with Mayor Goodman and my fellow Council members. Some of us have had our differences, we are supposed to do that.  It is called an "on the record debate" from various viewpoints on behalf of the folks that live in our City.  But, we must find a way at the end of the discussion even if it a close vote and come together on "what's next". Since I have been on the council we have drastically cut non-Water and Sewer staff. We must maintain a minimum number of staff members in our utilities department or we can not be in the Water and Sewer business. We have cut employees in all other departments to the point where it has affected service to our citizens. How much further can we go without putting the city’s future in jeopardy? I guess we will see in the coming months ahead when we begin work on the '12-'13 budget.

Cal

Current Office:

Councilman Cal Eilrich was sworn in on March 19, 2008. Cal was orignally appointed by the City Council to fill a vacancy in Ward 5 and then was elected in November of 2008. His term expires after the 2012 Elections.

Learn more about Councilman Cal Eilrich by clicking here.

I set up this website as a means to communicate to not only my constituents in Ward 5, but all of the good citizens of Fernley. Many folks might wonder why anyone would want to hold public office in a small city like Fernley. I think anyone that does so, truly cares about their community. I have always appreciated those who have served in these capacities, although God knows I haven’t always agreed with them on many of the issues. Whether I agreed with them or not, I did always respect them though. You may not agree with some of my decisions either, but if you use this site it won’t be due to lack of communication and not understanding where and why I stand on the issues.

Why Me?
I stepped up and put my name in to do this job because I cared deeply about where Fernley is heading in the future. I have to admit something though, I changed my mind on whether to submit an application for this position a half dozen times on the day I submitted it. I finally did it, but not without reservations. Those reservations included the time commitment away from my family and businesses, and just plain getting involved with “small-town politics”. My commitment to helping our future finally outweighed the reservations, after I realized that I have a “dog in this fight” just like you do. My wife and I plan to stay here the rest of our lives and our kids work and live here, and our grandchildren and future grandchildren I hope will be proud to stay here too.

Hard Work & Taxes
Yes, I’ve been in business for many years, but I started my concrete business with an old pick-up truck, a wheel barrel, a shovel and a bag of cement trowels. I came up the hard way and am a self-taught building designer, carpenter, and have the tools and learned every trade necessary to build a home from the ground up. It wasn’t that many years ago that I was pouring concrete every day for a living. The point is, that I know what a hard day’s work is and I can relate to and respect anyone who works for a living, because I always have and still do. We all have worked hard for whatever we have. I believe in as low of taxes as possible to provide the services that our citizens want and need. A city government is the closest form of government to the people and I believe we provide the most services for the least amount of tax revenue than any other form of government.

Economy & Fernley’s Future
This economy is tough on everyone. The most important thing right now on my mind is to play a part in helping Fernley recover as soon as possible. The good news is, Fernley sits right in the middle of some of the most desirable industrial property in the world. Between Wade/Lakemont and the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, the job potential is unbelievable and I am a firm believer that Fernley’s future is indeed bright, that is unless we shoot ourselves in the foot. I’ve played a large role in bringing about a positive change in our development codes, to make them more user friendly, so that we can compete for quality companies with quality jobs for our citizens. I have also played a large role in bringing about a change in Fernley’s Administration. I will continue to fight for Fernley’s future and the future of our citizens, because to me they are one in the same.

Water Treatment Plant Debt
I was one of 3 people that stood before a former City Council trying to convince them that spending, at that time, 43 Million Dollars of a Water Treatment Plant was a bad idea. Now the price is about 76 Million, since we didn’t know at the time that water transmission lines were left out of the original price tag. Now, that I’m on the City Council, I’m not going to cry about past decisions. Instead, I must do everything in my power in finding ways to pay our bond debt. The prior section about our economy and future is an absolute key factor in paying for this debt. I’m also currently researching ways for other options which can defer the debt to better years ahead once growth has returned.

My Decision Process
There are many issues that a City Councilman must consider that confront the City of Fernley. I do my best to approach each and every decision with an open mind. I do not take polls on the various topics, since there is no accurate way to scientifically conduct a poll with this number of citizens. Not only that, but polls are usually very misleading as those conducting them can ask very tainted and misleading questions, especially if those asking the questions have a political interest involved in the outcome. I do try to read all comments that I do receive via email, phone messages, letters, etc.. It might be one person that has an idea or thought that may sway my opinion on any given subject matter.

I’m no elitist, but in our form of government, a Representative Republic, it falls upon elected officials to research all sides of an issue to the best of their ability, before casting their votes. A citizen may express a very valid viewpoint, but they may not take into account other aspects of the issue that may outweigh their viewpoint. It is a rare thing that any decision is ever black and white or right and wrong. They almost all require some judgment or mitigation on the part of the elected official.

Sometimes with really tough issues, I gather my thoughts best by writing position papers. Because of my secondary career in the shooting sports, I’ve been the leader of some fairly involved and highly political organizations. I’m a published author and have been fortunate to have had articles published in a number of magazines and also have served as the editor for some other monthly publications. This experience has given me the ability to process words and as a benefit to the citizens of Fernley, I share my thoughts on many complicated issues facing the city through these words. Communication is absolutely a key factor to give citizens a real understanding of how and why their government works.

Complainers & Attackers
If you just want to just complain about government, then you will quickly lose my attention. If you want to just attack government officials because you’re just pissed at the world, it will just go in one ear and out the other. I try to avoid negative people like the plague, as I don’t want it rubbing off on me. I learned to avoid and ignore negative people as a champion competitive shooter decades ago, I don’t see any reason to change now. I choose to focus my front sight on solutions that make things better for Fernley. I believe that is what the citizens want me to do.

Positive Problem Solving
If you seek answers, I’ll do my best to find them for you. If you have positive ideas that might solve some problems, then I want to hear them. If you have a valid concern, I would like to hear your viewpoint. Please understand that City Councilmen don’t have a staff, this position is supposed to be just a part-time commitment. I do have other business concerns and I must still work to make a living. If you leave me a message or send an email and don’t hear back within a week or so, sometimes I travel or am busy working and it takes me time to get caught up. Sometimes emails and phone messages don’t make it through or get lost, so try me again if you don’t hear back, as I don’t want to ignore anyone. Emails are probably the most efficient way to get an answer back a.s.a.p.

I wish everyone in Fernley Best Wishes,

Cal Eilrich, Councilman Ward 5 (City of Fernley)