In-Depth Reporting in the Public Interest
 

October 7, 2009
 Coming soon: A more transparent Nevada
 Nevada citizens and state officials both will soon know a good deal more about how Silver State government is spending taxpayer dollars.

May 19, 2009
LVCVA Vice chair ducks advance payments issue
 Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority Vice Chairman Keith Smith is refusing to answer questions about the authority's long-standing policy of advancing millions of dollars in interest-free operating funds to Airwave Productions, an affiliate of the authority's advertising firm, R&R Partners.

April 20, 2009
 LVCVA's financial float documented
 Millions of dollars in advance payments from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to a company owned by R&R Partners CEO William Vassiliadis would not be allowed under state procurement regulations, a state purchasing official said Wednesday.

April 9, 2009
 Missing: Proof
LVCVA advertising
worth the millions
 The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority will gather Tuesday to hear the marketing and lobbying firm R&R Partners explain why it believes its expiring $92 million-a-year advertising contract should be extended. Yet, after many years, a crucial question still remains unanswered: What is the actual impact of R&R Partners' advertising campaign on the Las Vegas economy?

February 16, 2009
 LVCVA attempts to blur legal identity
 The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is attempting to redefine its legal identity and that of its top official in the wake of the Nevada Policy Research Institute's disclosures of improper spending, ethics violations and a longstanding breach of contract by the authority's advertising agency.

February 4, 2009
 R&R Partners Advertising Agreement in Limbo
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority's 14-member board of directors will face a crucial decision at its next meeting on Feb. 13: Whether to extend R&R Partners' $87 million-a-year advertising contract for another five years.

December 8, 2008
 Eight-month inquiry into LVCVA reveals
management mess
 LVCVA records reveal a pattern of extravagant spending, lax accounting, shoddy oversight and a disturbingly cozy relationship with major contractors.

 

January 28, 2010
 Property-tax conflict enters Nevada governor’s race

Amid record number of appeals, Montandon calls for system overhaul

By John Dougherty

LAS VEGAS — Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Montandon on Wednesday called for broad-based reform of Nevada's property-tax system by returning to market-based assessments and scrapping property-tax caps enacted in 2005.

The three-term former mayor of North Las Vegas made the comments in the wake of a record number of property-tax appeals filed in Clark County that could impact more than 130,000 parcels and indications of a widening property-tax revolt in Washoe County.

The surging number of property-tax appeals, up 33 percent in Clark County over last year's record number, is a clear signal that Nevada's taxable-value system is failing to keep pace with rapidly changing economic conditions, Montandon said.

Trained as a commercial real estate appraiser, Montandon said the state should abandon the taxable-value system that has been the basis for determining property taxes in Nevada since 1981.

"There's not a chance that it is constitutional," Montandon said during an interview at his campaign headquarters. "Let's go to a market-based system."

Nevada is the only state in the country that uses the taxable-value methodology to determine assessed values. Indiana was the last state to use a similar system and abandoned it more than 10 years ago after its Supreme Court ruled it was unworkable.

The basic problem with the taxable-value system is that it is not based on market values, critics say. Taxable value is the sum of the full cash value of land plus the replacement cost of improvements less 1.5 percent depreciation based on the age of the structure. Replacement cost is determined by using a private construction costing service — Marshal & Swift.

The system has become increasingly cumbersome in markets where undeveloped land sales are becoming increasingly scarce, such as many parts of Clark County. The lack of data requires assessors to use complicated appraisal methodologies to estimate the value of land.

The methods used by assessors vary across the state, leading to the likelihood that similar properties are not assessed equally, which would violate Article 10 of the state constitution. [more]

January 19, 2010
 Chief Justice highlights state’s failures on property taxes

Cites ‘confusion’ over
how to assess equally

By John Dougherty

LAS VEGAS — Nevada Supreme Court Chief Justice James W. Hardesty is voicing serious concern over the failure of the Nevada Legislature and state regulators to develop coherent laws and regulations ensuring that property owners are taxed equally across the state. Justice Hardesty's comments provide further evidence that Nevada's property-tax system may be violating Article 10 of the Nevada Constitution, which requires uniform and equal assessment and taxation of property.

In statements during a recent court hearing, the chief justice focused on the state's failure to pass adequate statutes and regulations for the state Board of Equalization to use. The board's mission is to ensure that Nevada's 17 elected county assessors are assessing property equally across the state.

Unlike the taxable-value system that values land and improvements separately, a market-based system would allow assessors to use readily available data on the sales of residential property to set assessed values for property taxes, Montandon said.

Montandon said property-tax reforms should be an issue for the 2011 Legislative Session and are too complicated and far-reaching to be broached during an upcoming special session.

Republican Governor Jim Gibbons is expected to announce in early February that he will call the Nevada Legislature into a special session to find ways to close a $900 million shortfall in this year's budget.

Montandon and former U.S. District Court Judge Brian Sandoval are challenging Gibbons in the Republican primary. Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid is the lone Democrat in the race.

Sandoval, Gibbons and Reid declined to comment on the surging number of property-tax appeals.

Montandon said the state should also abandon the property-tax caps that the legislature put in place in 2005. The property-tax caps have been widely criticized because they impose a 3 percent cap on the increase in property taxes on owner-occupied residential homes while most rental properties and commercial properties have an 8 percent cap.

The different property-tax caps, property-tax experts and some legislators say, appear to violate the state constitution's requirement of fair and equitable assessment and taxation. No one, however, has challenged the provision in court.

Welcomed at first during a period of rapidly rising real estate prices in the mid-2000s, the tax caps have become a source of bitterness for tens of thousands of property owners who have seen their property taxes go up even as their property values have declined dramatically. Assessed values of property must fall below 2005 levels for property taxes to fall.

Approximately 661,000 of Clark County's 730,000 parcels have fallen below the 2005 benchmark for the 2010-11 tax year, according to the county treasurer's office. The number of Clark County property owners seeing a reduction in property taxes is up from 470,000 in 2009 and 55,000 in 2008. [more]