The Reno City Council is preparing to send in its Bill Draft Request (BDR) for the upcoming Nevada Legislative session, which begins Feb. 3, 2025. The city is allotted two BDRs for the upcoming session.
Among the BDR proposals were changes to the city’s charter and ways to increase tax revenues. Council members weighed the options, as they’ll have to narrow the list by the end of August when the BDRs are due to be submitted to the legislature.
The Reno City Charter Committee proposed four changes to the city’s charter and will present its final report and proposed changes to the council on July 29 during a special meeting.
Potential BDRs are those that:
- Require the City Council to declare a special election if there are more than 180 days until the next general municipal election.
- Change the terms of the city’s Charter Committee members appointed by the legislature to align with the terms of an individual officeholder.
- Require that the city manager reside in the City of Reno within six months of their appointment.
- Eliminate gendered language in the Reno City Charter.
Increased taxes for capital improvements
Council members also discussed declining tax revenue with the closing of Harrah’s hotel and casino, and heard some options on how to make up that deficit.
In 2011, the Nevada Legislature approved a $2 room surcharge for downtown Reno hotels with non-restricted gaming licenses to pay for capital improvement projects to increase tourism. The fund balance for capital improvement projects such as the National Bowling Stadium and Reno Event Center is $2.8 million. However, projections show the fund shrinking significantly to only $355,851 by 2028.
One suggestion was to ask the legislature to increase the surcharge above the currently restricted $2 maximum. According to the city’s projections, doubling the surcharge to $4 per night would result in $2.57 million in annual revenue.
Another suggestion is to add the $2 capital improvement surcharge requirement to non-gaming hotels within the downtown district, which would only affect the Whitney Peak and Renaissance hotels. This would generate an estimated annual revenue of $2.03 million.
The second option would require Whitney Peak and Renaissance to collect more in surcharges than any other hotel in the city—$2 for capital improvements and $2 for tourism marketing. Downtown hotels with non-restricted gaming licenses currently collect $2 for capital improvements and $1 for tourism marketing, and hotels outside downtown collect just the $2 tourism marketing surcharge.
Another option suggested was to increase the residential construction tax, which has been capped at $1,000 since the late 1990s.
The tax works by charging 1% of the home’s valuation up to $1,000 with revenues paying for neighborhood parks within the home’s district. Since the average new construction house costs far more than $100,000 today, the law effectively caps that tax revenue at $1,000 per home.
According to Nic Ciccone, the city’s government affairs manager, the median home price in 1990 was $55,000. The cost per park acre was $75,000, which would require 100 homes to fund a park acre.
However, today with the median home price at $535,000 and the $1,000 cap in place, and a cost per acre for a park at $346,000, it will take 346 homes to generate enough revenue to fund one park acre.
With the $1,000 cap removed, however, it would only take 65 homes to fund the same park acre.
City staff presented two suggestions to remedy the issue. First, it was suggested to consolidate park districts which would remove the limitation that money generated has to be spent in the area in which it was generated.
Some districts (which do not align with city wards) such as District 4, have generated $11.8 million in residential construction tax revenue over the last decade, while others have generated far less, such as District 5’s $1.9 million. By consolidating all the districts into a single district, that fund could then be used to pay for parks throughout the city, instead of district-specific parks.
If this is approved, staff also suggested removing the acreage limitation, which is 25 acres in the current code.
When the tax was approved in the ‘90s the legislature did not consider a park over 25 acres a neighborhood park. However, for example, Virginia Lake Park is 30 acres and is considered by the city to be a neighborhood park.
Other BDR suggestions
Other discussions touched on creating a state fund for affordable housing. Since the affordable housing connection fee waiver was created, $9.4 million has been waived for 1,883 units across the city. The cap for the connection fee waiver is $11.3 million.
According to Ciccone, asking the legislature to create a state fund for this purpose would also allow other municipalities in the state to support affordable housing in their communities.
Ciccone said the city will also be seeking other potential sponsors for some of the BDRs rather than the city itself.
Council member Devon Reese said he would like to explore automatic recount requests. He was concerned, especially given the most recent election, that candidates are being forced to fund their own recounts in very close races. He said he wasn’t sure if the county was planning to submit a similar BDR but asked it to be researched.
Washoe County commissioners recently approved the possibility of a BDR for a change to vote recounts.
Reese also said he believes limiting the number of bills will increase the likelihood they’ll be passed.
Council member Naomi Duerr said the city has been “spectacularly unsuccessful” and she can’t remember a single bill ever being passed during her 10 years serving on the council, regardless of how many were submitted.
During the last legislative session, legislators killed one of the city’s proposed bills because it was considered an end run by the mayor and Reese to override the will of the voters. That bill would have reversed the voter-approved elimination of the at-large council position, a seat occupied by Reese.
Sen. Skip Daly (D-Washoe County) said the city’s bill contradicted the will of the voters.
“[The change to the sixth ward] was really more about individual representation,” he said in 2023. “And I, you know, don’t want to argue with the honorable mayor of Reno, but I haven’t seen some of those arguments… A lot of people want to have their individual representative, and we fought long and hard to get ward-only voting.”
Duerr also said very few elected officials at the state level have ever served in local government, and said the city should begin educating them on the issues of local government today. She said she believes many of the bills fail because they deal with asking for more revenue.
“They just don’t seem to want to give us more money,” she complained.
Following council input, a selection of BDR concepts will be ready for presentation on Aug. 14.
