ELKO – Elko County’s estimated assessed valuation for the upcoming 2022-2023 fiscal year is down 6.33% to nearly $2.37 billion from the current fiscal year when the net proceeds of minerals estimate is included, and the new state figures show the county’s population will slip by 889 people.
Nevada Department of Taxation’s population estimate for Elko County is that it will drop to 54,546 for the 2022-2023 fiscal year that begins July 1, compared with 55,435 people in the current fiscal year. The official population of Elko County in the 2020 Census was 53,702, an increase of 4,884 people since 2010.
The new figures provided to Elko County Commissioners state that the final, current 2021-2022 fiscal year assessed valuation of the county with net proceeds is nearly $2.53 billion, and the final valuation for the current fiscal year without the net proceeds is $2.08 billion.
The department’s assessed valuation estimate for the county without net proceeds is up 3.68%, however, for 2022-2023 to nearly $2.16 billion.
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Commissioners received the assessed valuation figures and population estimates April 6, when they also approved a tentative budget for the 2022-2023 fiscal year that shows a beginning fund balance of $13.1 million for all operating funds, total revenues for all operating funds of $41.39 million, total expenses at $47.8 million, and an ending fund balance of $6.695 million.
Net proceedsNevada Department of Taxation’s estimate for the new proceeds of minerals valuation for Elko County’s upcoming fiscal year plunged, but those numbers are just projections from mining companies, according to the department. The estimate is at $213.9 million for the 2022-2023 fiscal year, down 52.52% from the $450.5 million in the current fiscal year.
“There are many, many variables in place,” said Sharon Byram, an Elko attorney who is on the Nevada Tax Commission and on the board of the Nevada Taxpayers Association. She explained that the net proceeds estimate can be affected by inflation and the prices for gold, copper, silver and other minerals.
“One of the biggest costs is fuel; that and labor,” Byram said on April 8.
“Historically, net proceeds of mines revenue has been very volatile and can fluctuate significantly from year to year,” Elko County Manager Amanda Osborne said in an email.
Mining companies in Nevada pay a 5% net proceeds of minerals tax, and the Nevada Legislature last year passed a bill that adds an excise tax of 0.75% on mines with gross revenues between $20 million and $150 million and 1.1% on mines making more than $150 million — but the new tax goes to the state for the Mining Education Fund, not to the counties.
Revenue from the net proceeds tax that was going into the state’s general fund also will be going to the Mining Education Fund, but that change doesn’t affect counties, either. And mining companies agreed during the legislative session to one year of prepaid taxes to the state.
Looking at the communities within the county, the City of Elko’s assessed valuation for the 2022-2023 fiscal year is up 2.66% to $615.37 million, compared with $599.43 million for the current fiscal year. The city’s population is expected to decrease by 516 people to 20,976, compared with 21,492 residents in the current fiscal year.
Carlin’s assessed valuation is estimated at nearly $41.37 million, up 3.49% from the $39.97 million for the 2021-2022 fiscal year, and the population will be down 59 to 2,615 for the upcoming fiscal year, compared with 2,674 in the current fiscal year.
Nevada Department of Taxation figures for Wells show the assessed valuation with net proceeds of mines will be up 3.44% to $31.54 million, compared with $30.49 million in the 2021-2022 fiscal year, and the population in the new fiscal year will be down 24 to 1,272 from 1,296 in the current fiscal year.
For West Wendover, the estimate for the assessed valuation will be up 1.52% to $145.79 million from $143.6 million this fiscal year, and the population will dip by 83 to 4,452 in the 2022-2023 fiscal year.
Jackpot’s assessed valuation is at $29.62 million for the upcoming fiscal year, or 9.58% higher than the $27.03 million in the current fiscal year. The population at Jackpot is expected to be down 17 to 944 in the 2022-2023 fiscal year.
Montello’s estimated assessed valuation for the 2022-2023 fiscal year is up 2.93% to nearly $2.1 million, and the population is expected to be down by one to 60 people.
Mountain City’s population is also estimated to be down by one for the 2022-2023 fiscal year to 74, according to the Nevada Department of Taxation figures, which show an estimated assessed valuation of $2.39 million, up 6.58%.
The tentative budget for the county’s 2022-2023 fiscal year is a base that “basically includes the same expenditures as the prior year,” Osborne said in an email.
The tentative budget isn’t specific on any pay raises for county employees, but she said that “we have set aside some funds to implement, at least in part, the recommendations of the class/comp study that we started in 2020 right at the time COVID-19 began to impact Elko County. Because compensation is a mandatory subject of collective bargaining, and we are currently in active labor negotiations with several of our unions, we don’t know exactly what that will look like yet.”
According to the tentative figures that will be finalized in June, the general fund for the 2022-2023 fiscal year will begin with a beginning fund balance of nearly $10.56 million, revenues of $36.33 million, expenses totaling $40.76 million and an ending fund balance of a little more than $6.12 million.
Teri Gage of Eide Bailly LLP, who presented the audit for the 2020-2021 fiscal year to county commissioners on April 6, said the county’s net position at the close of the 2021 fiscal year was $93.35 million, up by $13.8 million from the 2019-2020 fiscal year.
The audit showed that combined governmental funds had an ending fund balance of $53.8 million, up $12.5 million from the prior year, and the general fund balance at the end of the 2020-2021 fiscal year was $12.5 million, $8.8 million higher than budgeted.
“You had a nice ending fund balance,” Gage said.
Gage said the federal CARES Act grants totaling a little more than $4 million were spent in the fiscal year, but American Rescue Plan Fund totaling a little more than $5 million were not yet spent in the 2020-2021 fiscal year.
She said the audit gives Elko County a clean opinion, but there is one continuous snag. The county includes the fair board, which she said hasn’t been audited in more than 20 years at least, so that impacts the audit opinion.
Commissioners Rex Steninger, Wilde Brough and Cliff Eklund approved the audit. Chairman Delmo Andreozzi and Commissioner Jon Karr were absent.
A new mining tax approved last year by the Nevada Legislature goes to the state for its Mining Education Fund, not to the counties.
