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A Conversation/Interview
With John Sherman
Washoe County’s Finance Director
Dec. 16, 2010

Click Here for Video 32 Informative Minutes

A Few Highlights

(All figures are approximations, as gleamed from the conversation.)

• The Finance Department – Includes the Budget Dept., Comptroller’s Office and Risk Management.
• The Finance Department has seen (approximately) a 30 percent reduction in staff and budget.
• Budget has been reduced by approximately $125,000,000
• The total operating budget is a nearly $800,000,000
• The County pays its bills on time
• The County has sufficient cash flow to operate effectively
• The County has an AA credit rating, the best in northern Nevada
• The monthly outflow of cash is $27,000,000
• As a regional service provider Washoe County as a governmental entity is larger than the cities of Reno and Sparks combined

Economic Outlook:

The Economy will be a long time in recovering

• Due to high Unemployment
• The amount of residential property in foreclosure

The New Normal

• This Is not the typical business cycle
• Economic activity will stabilize at a reduced level
  
  
  
• In the 2007 and 2009 legislative sessions the State increased the states share of property tax and sales tax in both Clark County and Washoe County. Those laws will sunset in July of 2011.
• The State has not taken money from an existing account but simply increased their percentage of property tax and sales tax.

People often joked in the boom times that the construction boom was for more construction workers moved to southern Nevada to build more homes for more construction workers to move to southern Nevada . . .

Ultimately this was not sustainable.

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