When I first moved to Mesquite in 2005 and MLN was in its infancy I pretty much thought all politicians had a screw loose. I could never have imagined myself sitting on City Council.MLN-Cindimar12-15

And who would have ever thought that I’d be sitting here writing a guest column for the very newspaper I helped found?

Life is funny and we all start out thinking things are one way, until they aren’t.

While I may very well have been right about politicians having a screw loose, I certainly never expected to be on City Council or that we would sell the newspaper.

One of the most common things in Mesquite is that most of us are from somewhere else.

This is the great melting pot we all heard about as children. We come here from almost every state in the nation and some from other countries.

We bring with us a wealth of information and experience from a wide variety of cultures and jobs.

Because of this we also bring along all of our misconceptions. We were quite certain how the world worked wherever we lived before. Suddenly it’s a whole new ballgame.

You see, Nevada is different from most anywhere I’ve ever lived. Maybe it is for you as well.

So my goal with this column is to make it a little less confusing for us all.

One of the most confusing differences that I’ve noticed is how things are funded in Nevada.

Everywhere else I’ve ever lived, if you paid taxes in a city that money stayed in the city and funded that city.

Taxes were broken down into categories. Property taxes were made up of school, state and local taxes and they were paid to the respective agencies.

Sales tax pretty much worked the same way. Different town or cities could have different tax rates.

In Nevada it works differently. Room tax, sales tax and property tax are all paid into the state and then divided up by a formula called the Consolidated  or C-tax based on population.

Now this very likely made perfect sense when the cities were very remote from each other and many didn’t generate enough tax to survive. Like most things, there was a reason in the beginning. Times change and the rules remained the same. We are constantly trying to get the powers that be to revise the way they distribute the C-tax.

So while this is a grossly over simplified version of how Nevada funds its communities it is a beginning and hopefully it gives some of you a bit better understanding.

Please contact me if you have suggestions or questions.

Cindi Delaney is one of the original founders of Mesquite Local News and has lived in Mesquite since 2005. She is an award winning writer, designer and photographer, owning a home-based portrait studio, Delaney Studio. She was appointed to City Council on May 27, 2014. Send your questions and comments to CindiOnCouncil@gmail.com. This column is copyrighted by Cindi Delaney and may not be reprinted, linked to and or published electronically all or in part without the express written permission of the owner.