In a mixed bag meeting Thursday, city supervisors turned down a chance to raise property taxes $220,000 for their beleaguered city budget, but set into motion the process that could raise water rates up to 25 percent depending on how costs work out on the Douglas County-Carson City water inter-tie project.
The Nevada Department of Taxation had given permission for the city to raise property taxes on properties developed after the recently enacted property tax cap.
The $220,000 additional funds would have helped reduce city worker layoffs or reduce spending cuts, but after a chorus of protests from residents, the Supervisors backed off. They nixed any tax hike. About $25,000 of the tax hike would have gone to the City Redevelopment Department, thereby potentially benefiting the pending Carson Nugget project. But again, the Supervisors voted no.
However, they voted yes on a possible 25 percent water rate increase to build a large water importation pipeline from Minden to Carson City. The pipeline, already under construction, will bring into Carson 2,900 acre-feet of very high quality water that will dilute-down Carson's high rates of arsenic and uranium coming from a number of city wells. Both elements occur naturally in local soils. Construction of the pipeline within Carson City itself is expected to begin in the next few months.
The pipeline will also allow a more strategic method of water sharing in the event of major fires and droughts between Douglas, Carson and eastern Lyon County.
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