Our county is made up of two main areas, the valley and the lake.  And while ts critical to understand that our county is made up of these two distinct areas, they are similar in how they are laid out.  We actually have two lakes, while Tahoe gets the glory, some miss of the best lakes in Nevada down at Topaz.  It's a great lake for boating, fishing, wake boarding and swimming.  (Yes, you can swim in Topaz and not totally freeze!)

In addition to the two lakes, both areas have a major highway through the main area of the township and is cumbersome to pedestrian traffic and establishing a business friendly environment. To answer these driving concerns our citizens rose to the challenge and have conducted separate studies that build upon a community vision.

There is a Tahoe South Shore Vision Plan that has been in process and is still going forward, providing a vehicle to share community concerns and help for the future.  Revitalizing the lake area is a key to growth and we have a state highway as the main street through town.

There is also a new Valley Vision built on the same premise and having a state highway as the main street. This group is  going strong with several nights of community input in April.  We look forward to both of these plans as they take shape and provide more insight to future of our county.

The beginning of each year with the county means we are moving towards the budgeting cycle.  Normally that’s true, but this past year under the leadership of Steve Mokrohisky and your county commission we have been able to begin the implementation of the a priority based budgeting system. This new process actually began in the summer of 2011 when Steve brought this idea to the commission just after he became the county manager.  In addition to this system and under Steve’s leadership we have also been able to look at a 5 year forecast of the county revenue and spending. 

These new approaches have provided information to make the tough decisions that are required when we look at balancing our finances. And prioritizing where your money should be spent.

With the priority based budgeting system all of our county departments have ranked all of their programs into 4 quartiles based on how they align to our county priorities. Following that ranking their peers reviewed and validated the rankings sometimes changing the ranking and those rankings were sent back to the department head.  
 
Each program has a dollar amount attached to it so when we look at the lowest ranking programs and the budgeted amount we can also filter down to different looks that allow us to see mandated programs and programs that are impacting different areas of the county budget.

The result over the next few months will be asking tough questions of our programs and our county leaders have already begun that process.  Let me share you one example of a tough question we may need to address. Should we maintain a county DMV department? It costs tax payers roughly $140,000 and only brings in a revenue of $90,000 costing the tax payers additional money to bring this service to our citizens.   With the internet being prevalent in our county and the ease of renewing on line, this cost is more likely to go up rather than go down. Do we maintain this service or do we change that service?  Please know these numbers are not final and are preliminary and may change as we continue to evaluate them.  I share this example so you can see the challenge we will have moving forward.

The new system will give us vision into our budget and programs that we have never had before. We are all able to look at our spending a new way.  Stay tuned!

Thank you for the faith and trust you give to us as your commissioners  and for your support.  If you have any questions please email me at lbonner@co.douglas.nv.us and I will always respond back to you.  

I have created  new web site that updates citizens on some thoughts I have regarding county decisions and strategies and priorities.