City Manager Jackie Bryant gave Ward 5's Neighborhood Advisory Board an extended briefing on Nevada's consolidated tax package — the mix of six taxes the state collects and redistributes to counties and cities — and explained why the revenue Reno receives is smaller than many residents expect.

Bryant said the six components (liquor, cigarette, governmental services tax/vehicle registration, real-property transfer tax and two sales-tax components) generated about $2.2 billion statewide in fiscal 2024. "The revenue that the City Of Reno receives from the consolidated taxes on an annual basis makes up a third of our general fund budget," she said, stressing that sales taxes are the dominant portion of CTAX.

Why it matters: the city uses CTAX to pay for core services that are not covered by user fees, Bryant said, including police, fire, code enforcement, planning and finance. She told the board that roughly 80% of the city's CTAX receipts come from the sales-tax components and that local retail activity and regional allocation formulas strongly affect how much money Reno actually receives.

Details and examples: Bryant walked the board through each tax component and showed distribution examples. For vehicle-registration fees she used a $30,000 car example and said $420 would be paid with a portion allocated to CTAX. For a $100 retail purchase at an 8.27% sales-tax rate, she said, "69¢ goes to Reno," illustrating how much of the $8.27 total stays with the city.

On the totals, Bryant presented two related figures during the briefing: she said the Washoe region's distribution from one supplemental component was about $313 million and that, "Reno received 96,400,000.0, almost a third of the total," during that example. Later in the presentation she referenced roughly $102 million as the city's annual CTAX receipts in another context; she described this part of the briefing as an effort to show both distribution and the city's operating picture.

Policy and remedies: Bryant told the board there are two broad ways to change Reno's share: a legislative change to the formula set in 1997 (which would require state action) or a city-level review of interlocal agreements and administrative fees to ensure Reno is not subsidizing services provided to other jurisdictions. "We are actively scrubbing every single interlocal agreement, MOU, and those that just existed via an email, and we're cataloging them," she said, adding the city is identifying where it might apply administrative fees.

Technical reporting and short-term volatility: Bryant flagged recent reporting issues at the Nevada Department of Taxation — a switch in accounting basis combined with a cyberattack — that created volatile month-to-month receipts and made short-term trending difficult. She said the state has returned to an accrual basis and the city can now begin to trend revenues more reliably.

Board reaction: Board members asked whether legislative fixes were realistic and whether the city's receipts matched expenditures; Bryant said legislative change is possible but unlikely to be a simple fix and emphasized the city is preparing a detailed budget presentation for a future meeting. She also reassured residents concerned about a rumored truck stop in an unrelated development, saying the "zoning is not appropriate for a truck stop."

What's next: Bryant offered to return with a full budget presentation and more detailed numbers if the board wants further context on how CTAX fits into Reno's overall revenue picture.