Coyote TV - High Desert Advocate

Big Building With A Big Bill

        Thanks mostly to the Montego Bay’s Expansion and the Rusty Palms Development West Wendover’s total assessed property valuation grew by just under $5 million from last year, reported Elko County Assessor Katrinka Russell.
    According to the County assessor’s office West Wendover property valuation grew from $104,473,459 in January 2009 to a forecasted  $109,219,103 for January 2010.
    Most of the increase were primarily due to the expansion at the Montego Bay which is valued about $4 million more than it was last year and the new Rusty Palms Project which is valued at about $1 million by the Assessor.
    By Nevada law assessed valuation is about a third of the fair market value of the property and it is the amount that is subject to property taxes levels by the state, county and local government.
    The increase in total assessed valuation means and increase in total property tax revenue which makes up about a third of tax revenue for local state and county governments.
    The good news for West Wendover is that the growth in valuation could mean between $100,000 to $300,000 in new tax revenue depending on how the new values are assessed.
    The bad news is that West Wendover was expecting at least twice if not three times that increase when it made its budget estimate to pay off the new city hall two years ago. The worse news is that even while property tax revenue is going up, declines in sales tax revenue and gaming tax revenue could easily wipe out any increase the city sees from sales tax.
    Gaming win for Wendover is down over 10 percent for the fiscal year and sales tax is off by 12 percent. Neither of those results were also expected two years ago.
    In other words Wendover went into debt to build a new city hall based on a set of predictions that not only did not come true but turned out horribly wrong at least for this year.
    If the local economy does not come out of the Great Recession soon, the city could find itself having to starve other departments to pay off the debt service of the new city hall.
    According to Mayor Donnie Anderson the city is already addressing a significant shortfall for this year and will meet in January to discuss options.
    As an employee of the Nevada Department of Transportation Anderson is used to be on the receiving end of budget cuts not having to make them.
    “Laying off employees is the last thing I want to do,” Anderson said Tuesday. “Before it comes to that we should explore all other options like making do with less or furloughing.”
    West Wendover has one of the highest employee to population ratios in the state and is the largest employer in the city after the five major casinos.
    The last time the city faced a similar fiscal crisis was in 2003 during the StateLine bankruptcy when unpaid property taxes and the subsequent devaluing of the company’s casino put a hole in the budget that cause the city to institute an across the board hiring and pay freeze.
    That crisis lasted just a year. and the city quickly rebounded thanks to a booming economy.
    This one has the potential last much longer.