Mayor debate: Two visions on Carson City budget

During a public forum Monday night, incumbent Carson City Mayor Lori Bagwell and challenger Jim Shirk discussed the Nov. 5 ballot questions for local road funding, which turned into a larger debate about the city budget.

The League of Women Voters of Northern Nevada, Sierra Nevada Forums and AAUW Capital (NV) Branch presented the free election forum, one of four co-sponsored by the Nevada Appeal.
Monday’s event was moderated by Nancy Scott, and questions were taken from audience members. More than 180 people attended, and the debate can be watched on the Appeal’s YouTube page at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIx5ShRlbpA.

Bagwell was elected in 2020, having served on the Board of Supervisors since 2015. A 1980 Carson High graduate, Bagwell has a background in budget analysis and administration and worked for several state departments including as deputy director of the Department of Corrections. Retiring, she became a business owner and entrepreneur, according to the city’s website.

Shirk has a background in construction and real estate and previously served on the planning commission and cultural commission. He also arranged for the World Trade Center memorial on display at Mills Park. In 2012, he was elected as a supervisor of Ward 4 and served one term.

“Our city roads need work. It’s a problem as simple as looking at your grocery bill,” Bagwell said Monday. “Over the last few years, prices have risen faster than most people’s pay checks. Well, it turns out they’ve risen faster than the city revenue also. Same problem. There’s no magic pool of money to fix this and no outside group or funding that can foot the whole bill. It’s our city’s biggest challenge. We’ll find a way to fund our roads or end up with Band-Aid solutions while the overall system deteriorates. I hope it doesn’t come to that, which is why I’m glad voters have a chance to look at funding solutions on the November ballot.”

Voters will decide on two tax proposals to raise an estimated $7 million annually for local roads, those neighborhood streets that don’t qualify for federal grants like regional arterials or collectors. One proposal is a .25 percent sales tax and the other is a supplemental government services tax of one cent on one dollar of vehicle valuation collected during registration at the DMV. The latter fee depreciates with vehicle age.
Public Works has estimated the funding shortfall between maintenance needs of deteriorating roads and current funding is $21 million a year.

Shirk argued Monday developers building in the city should be charged a flat fee for each new dwelling “that would go towards street repair.”

“My opponent has allowed Carson City’s deficit to increase to $21 million during her term,” said Shirk. “Decisions and taking any type of action were never taken. Her solution was to create two new taxes. These new taxes have little effect on the $21 million deficit shortage. If my opponent is re-elected, I can guarantee you that the general improvement district tax, the GID, will reappear.”

Facing 123 percent growth in construction costs since 2000, versus only 25 percent growth in gas tax revenue, city staff and leaders have been exploring funding options in recent years. In 2016, for example, an increase in the gas tax put to voters was rejected. In 2022, a 5-cent-per-gallon diesel tax was approved. A GID with special assessment on properties was one option explored through public workshops the last two years. In August at a Regional Transportation Commission meeting, Bagwell, who chairs RTC, said supervisors decided on the ballot measures and would not implement a GID without voter approval.

One audience question asked, “What specific road repair and maintenance do you believe is necessary, and do you have a recommendation to pay for it?”

“I think the budget needs to be examined at the Board of Supervisors meeting twice a month,” said Shirk. “A department head can come there with his budget. We can look at the budget, talk about the budget and reexamine how they’re spending things, and we need to find ways to cut the budget, even a percentage or two of every department.

“And if we can do that, we’ll raise money for road repair. That’s the only way we’re going to do it is we need to reexamine how we do our budget and the opposite of giving every penny to the department, we should ask for a percentage coming back the other way. We need to cut the department’s percentage, just one percent or two percent. If we did that to every department, we would get some money for road repair.”

Bagwell pushed back on the idea of department cuts:

“How to pay for it (road repair)? Your Board of Supervisors has already told you how we think it should be paid for is two ballot measures,” said Bagwell. “Let’s talk about his idea of just asking the departments to give up one percent. So, I did a little bit of math and just kind of looking at things to talk about, and I use an audit — because I like real numbers; I don’t like pretend numbers; let’s go to real ones — so our general fund for fiscal (year) ’23 was $103 million. We expended $83 (million), and then we had other uses of $19 (million) because you have to pay your debt. The debt collector comes, right? So, then I look and say, ‘What do we spend our money on?’

“So, If I’m going to give them a haircut like he’s suggesting, 65 percent of our budget is to the DA, the public defender, the sheriff, the juvenile (services department), our DAS (Department of Alternative Sentencing), our courts and our fire department. Most communities I know of, they’re never cutting their public safety…that leaves us our health, culture and recreation and our administration. That is $28 million that we have left that we spend in those arenas.

“I challenge each and every one of you to tell me where I’m going to get $10 million out of that $28 million.”

Shirk responded by claiming he didn’t say he would take money from the departments Bagwell specifically mentioned.

“I think in general, we need to look at our budget and readjust and make cuts and think through more thoroughly how we’re spending the taxpayers’ money,” he said. “I didn’t say cut the sheriff or fire department or all those other ones.”

The candidates also discussed homelessness in the city, blighted buildings, sustainability, the ongoing update to the master plan and future challenges.

“Some of the challenges that I see or concerns that I have really deals in the school districts,” said Bagwell. “More and more things are happening within our schools. You have seen recently that the sheriff has had do some interactions with our children dealing with they think it’s funny to say, ‘I’m going to harm you.’ It’s not funny. I see that as more and more of a challenge, of needing more resource officers potentially in our schools, but one of those things I said: public safety is the responsibility of all of us.”

Shirk said, “The challenges for our community are endless.”

“They come and go every day,” he said. “We need to look at them at a better perspective and more often.”

The next forums are scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 9, and Oct. 14 and 16. More information:

https://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/2024/sep/23/league-of-women-voters-will-hold-carson-city-election-forums-in-october/