Dayton residents get step-by-step tips on incorporation

More than 50 Dayton residents were told that there are benefits and drawbacks to incorporation, and that it would take a long time and a lot of work to complete.

Assemblyman Tom Grady, R-Yerington, told the group that met in the Dayton Intermediate School gym Tuesday to discuss the possibility of incorporating Dayton and Mound House as a city, that there were certain steps to get it done, but it would take about a year to begin.

First, a committee had to be formed to circulate petitions, which then had to be signed by a third of all eligible voters in the proposed incorporation area.

After that, the committee would provide development information to the state Department of Taxation, said Terry Rubald, the department's chief of the Division of Assessment Standards. Information would include a survey of the area to be incorporated.

The department would then provide information to the Committee on Local Government Finance, made up of officials from around the state.

"That takes some of the politics out of it," Rubald said.

She said the CLGF would put together a feasibility report, which would be taken to the Lyon County Commissioners for their vote.

Lyon County Commissioner Bob Milz said if the incorporation was financially feasible, he believed most of the commissioners would be in favor of it.

Then the next step would be a vote of the people, but only in the proposed incorporated area.

On taxes, Rubald told the group that being an incorporated city does not mean Dayton would get more of the state's consolidated taxes.

"The pie is not bigger, it stays the same, but the pieces are divided differently," she said, pointing out that Lyon County will get the same amount of revenue, but spread thinner among all the county's entities.

Grady said incorporated cities can not charge more than 20 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, and would have to take over some services, including planning and zoning. He said that was what made incorporation attractive to Fernley residents.

Milz suggested incorporation should begin at the Carson City line, go east to Ten Mile Hill, south to BLM land and north to the Storey County line, encompassing Mound House but leaving Silver City out. He added that the boundaries would be up to the formation committee to choose and the residents to vote on.

Meeting moderator Christy McGill said that she goes to many government meetings and is frustrated with county government, especially with planning issues. When she asked for a show of hands on who in the crowd would be interested in pursuing the issue further, a little more than half raised their hands.

"The people in Dayton should make choices on what they want in their town," Milz said. "They should choose what they want and they should pay for it."