To Our Friends in Incline Village and Crystal Bay,

All 9000 residential properties in the Incline Village and Crystal Bay areas, have by now received the latest “Notice of Hearing” from the Office of the Washoe County Clerk.

This County Notice is to alert you to a hearing to be held on May 8, 2007 at 9:00 A.M., once again before the Washoe County Board of Equalization (CBOE). This time it will be in Room A-20 at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center – 4590 South Virginia Street – Reno, Nevada 89502.

We are not as yet certain that this hearing will take place. We will keep you informed by the next Alert, as to whether or not you should plan to attend. Attorney Suellen Fulstone, representing the Village League and some individuals, has just this morning filed a Writ of Mandamus and a request for an Emergency Stay to the Nevada Supreme Court. If the Court agrees, the hearings will be stopped until the Court rules on the Writ of Mandamus.

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

What do those legal actions really mean? The Writ of Mandamus is a request for the Supreme Court to DEMAND that the County and the State follow the decision issued by the Supreme Court last December 2006. The Emergency Stay is to preclude this hearing by the CBOE, to reconsider the roll back for all of the IV/CB residents, from being held at all.

The Village League filed a Motion in the Carson City District Court protesting the State Board of Equalization’s (SBOE) hearing of the appeal filed by the Washoe County Assessor of the CBOE ruling last March 2006.

The CBOE had ordered a roll-back of the entire IV/CB area to the property tax values assessed in 2002 and refunds plus interest on all overpaid taxes for the 2006 year.

Unfortunately, Judge Russell did not stop the SBOE hearings, but he did say the following directly to the attorneys for the State:

• “…the Court is troubled by the fact that the State Board of Equalization is putting the taxpayers through these hearings. It’s just beyond me where you have established a particular determination that’s been made by the Supreme Court, that basically the assessed valuation procedures used by the county were incorrect … The dictates of the Bakst case are very specific in regards to what it made a determination on. And, if, to the extent that the 2006-2007 tax assessments … have any relationship to that case, then why is the State Board of Equalization putting these people through these particular hoops and having these hearings in light of that?”

Our feelings exactly! However, the SBOE held their hearings anyway and on March 27 voted to “Remand” the decision made last year by the 2006 CBOE back to the current 2007 CBOE. The purported reason is to obtain more “facts” upon which the roll-back decision for all of IV/CB was made over a year ago.

WHAT IS THE REAL REASON?

We feel that the true reason for the “Remand” is that when the current CBOE, (of which a majority of the members are now controlled by the Washoe County Commissioners), votes on May 8, 2007 to send back the “facts” requested, the SBOE will then determine that not enough “facts” were known by the 2006 CBOE and will overturn our hard won victory for everyone in the IV/CB area.

If, in fact, that is the result, we will be forced to go, once again, to the District Court for Judicial Review and then, most probably, to the Supreme Court to defend yet another appeal by Washoe County.

WHY DOES THIS CONTINUE?

That is a question that all of us have been asking ourselves.

The Supreme Court ruled in our favor, the Legislators, the Nevada Tax Commission, the State Department of Taxation, the State Board of Equalization and three previous County Boards of Equalization have all stated that they want CLOSURE to this property tax fiasco.

Who is it that wants to continue these legal battles in an attempt to exhaust our energies and our coffers? We have come to the decision that the following parties are the culprits; all of the Washoe County Commissioners, (particularly Commissioner Larson), District Attorney Gammick, Washoe County Manager Katy Singlaub and Washoe County Finance Director John Sherman. We will be watching to see who is appointed and elected to these positions in the future.

They are completely ignoring the illegality of what has been done in their frantic attempts to keep the money that should have been refunded to you and are planning to continue to collect even more property taxes from the IV/CB “cash cow”. In other words, the “Washoe County tail is wagging the State dog”.

GETTING OUR MONEY IS THEIR GOAL!

They are keeping our money and they still want more! There seems to be no end to the amount of funds that bureaucracies desperately “need” in order to pay for all of the programs that they determine to be necessary.

PLEASE!!
MARK YOUR CALENDARS
FOR THE
MAY 8 HEARING!!!

As was stated previously, the hearing may not go forward. However, if it does, this will be the last possibility for you to make your thoughts known, in person, to Washoe County; and to fight to keep the tax relief and refunds that we already have won for every single one of the 9000 home owners in the Incline Village and Crystal Bay areas.

WATCH FOR AN EMERGENCY ALERT!

WE WILL NEED YOU THERE!

Sincerely,