NPTR: Alert #238: A Must Read

Thu May 27 10:03:37 PDT 2010

A MUST READ

ALERT:#238
DATE:May 27, 2010
TO:Incline Village & Crystal Bay Property Owners
FROM:Village League Tax Revolt Committee

Dear Incline Village &
Crystal Bay Property Tax Protesters,

The follow article,
regarding the conduct of the office of the Washoe County District Attorney, was
published in the Bonanza newspaper. It clearly states the incredible difficulty
placed in the path of our taxpayers to finally receive the refunds and
decreased assessed valuations of our properties awarded to us by the courts. 

REMINDER

Please VOTE!  Note that there are TWO candidates for the office of Washoe District
Attorney. Ken Stover is campaigning against existing D.A. Richard Gammick. This is a VERY important race!!

Sincerely,

   Maryanne Ingemanson

Maryanne Ingemanson,President
Village League to Save Incline Assets
mingemanson at charter.net
www.NevadaPropertyTaxRevolt.org

---------------------------------

Village
League to Save Incline Assets Board Members:
-
Maryanne Ingemanson,President
-
Dale Akers,
Historian
-
Les Barta,Law Research
-
John Carney,Analyst
-
Wayne Fischer, Webmaster
-
Todd Lowe,
Financial,
-
Chuck Otto,
Public Relations 

Village League to Save
Incline Assets, Inc.
Non-Profit Corporation - FEIN 88-0399029
1165 Vivian Lane, Incline Village, NV 89451
Phone: 775-831-4011, Fax 775-831-0325

Time
for change in Washoe County DA's office

By Jim Clark
Special to the
Bonanza
May 25, 2010

INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. — When it comes to the
Incline/Crystal Bay Property Tax Revolt District Attorney Dick Gammick is like
the French knight in Monty Python's Holy Grail comedy ... he keeps getting
whacked down by the Nevada Supreme Court, the Washoe County and Nevada Boards
of Equalization but comes back to fight again. I guess we shouldn't be
surprised; we taxpayers are paying his and his staff's salaries so I guess he
figures: “why shouldn't I?”

There is a good, solid reason why he shouldn't keep up
this travesty. This can get really complicated but the overarching facts are as
follows. Three times now the Nevada Supreme Court has ruled that valuation
methods used by the Washoe County Assessor and applied only to Incline
Village/Crystal Bay properties were unconstitutional under the “taxes must be
uniform and equal” provision of Nevada's Constitution. Corrective action under
those decisions was delegated by the Court to the State Board of Equalization
which last year issued an order rolling Incline/Crystal Bay property
assessments back to the levels of 2002-2003, the last year assessments met
constitutional muster.

In response Washoe County officials did nothing, so the
Village League to Save Incline Assets asked the Washoe County District Court to
order the county treasurer to start sending refund checks for the amounts
unlawfully collected together with 6 percent interest per annum. The hearing
resulted, over the protests of the district attorney, in an order from Judge
Brent Adams to the county treasurer to cough up the cash.

This spring Gammick's office filed another appeal to the
Nevada Supreme Court seeking to overturn Judge Adams' order as well as another
district court action, this time in Carson City, asking for judicial review of
both the Washoe County and Nevada State Boards of Equalization decisions that
Washoe County roll back Incline/Crystal Bay assessments to 2002-2003 levels.
Now this is Nevada and you can play two or three slot machines at the same time
but I don't know about the propriety of dragging the same issues and arguments
in front of as many trial courts and appeal courts as you can find. I guess as
long as we taxpayers don't mind paying for it the district attorney will do it.

The legal briefs filed by the district attorney in both
the Nevada Supreme Court and the Carson City District Court are very technical
and labored. However the Supreme Court brief includes an argument that
absolutely illustrates the degree of desperation the county has sunk to. First
the background: The Village League was required to file several suits because
the courts would only consider one tax year at a time. With each win in the
Nevada Supreme Court the execution of the judgment would frequently be delayed
(“stayed”) pending the outcome of another legal action. As a result
Incline/Crystal Bay property owners continued to pay taxes based on the
unconstitutional assessments.

In this latest brief the district attorney alleges:
“Recovery of voluntarily-paid taxes is not permitted by law ... This rule is
known as the ‘voluntary payment doctrine', the public policy behind which is to
prevent the taxing entity from using funds paid by taxpayers in a given budget
year and subsequently being required to refund those amounts.” What? We paid
the money voluntarily? This sounds like more comedy from Monty Python.

Republican Ken Stover is running against Gammick in the
Primary Election, so Republicans can do something about this idiocy right now.
Non partisan voters and those registered in other parties may have to wait
until November.

Jim Clark is president of Republican Advocates, a vice chair of the Washoe
County GOP and a member of the Nevada GOP Central Committee. He can be reached
at tahoesbjc at aol.com. 

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