County wants tax formula overhaul
Clark County commissioners want a bigger piece of the consolidated tax revenue pie.
So on Tuesday, they sent a letter to a legislative committee citing flaws in the formula that determines how much of the revenues the counties and cities get.
Their input was sought by Assemblywoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas, who leads a legislative committee formed last year to examine whether the formula for the allocation of C-tax revenue is equitable to all governmental entities. She is seeking such comments from each local government that receives the revenues.
Nevada's consolidated tax distribution formula is the equation used to give allotments of state tax revenue back to communities statewide. The tax pool is made up of six different taxes, including the cigarette tax, liquor tax and a government services tax collected by the Department of Motor Vehicles at the time a vehicle is registered.
The taxes are distributed based on a complicated formula involving population and property values. Jurisdictions also receive a base amount that is adjusted according to the Consumer Price Index.
Clark County's letter to the legislative interim committee said that the formula "does not provide additional funding to growth communities as the framers of the legislation intended" and "does not recognize the differences in the scope and complexity of services provided by the more than 150 governmental units that receive a distribution" and that per capita distribution "varies significantly in Southern Nevada between cities and unincorporated towns."
In a Feb. 21 presentation to commissioners, county Chief Financial Officer George Stevens discussed how the formula "creates a fundamental impediment to an equitable distribution due to the fact that the services being funded by entities are not equal."
The letter points to the county's dual function in providing both municipal and regional services and how that has caused a gap of $44 per capita in fiscal 2011 between the average per capita distribution to Southern Nevada cities and Clark County.
"We recognize that this is often a contentious issue and that providing an equitable solution is a difficult process," the letter reads.
