What Does A County Commissioner Do?
People often ask me “what does a Commissioner do?”. A technical answer is that it is a Partisan office that makes decisions about the County Budget, the development and land use, zoning, business regulations and resource allocation – as it pertains to land use. So, there are Republicans and Democrats in the race, and the winners of that primary in June will run against each other in the General election in November. It all seems so bland and nerdy.
It seems bland and nerdy until you realize that the decisions that these Commissioners make have a daily and significant impact on your daily life. I could go into much more detail of each of these areas, but this is a little synapsis.
Development: We are a very developer friendly jurisdiction. They say because we have a housing shortage, but lots of places do, and they say because of affordable housing, but there’s no definition or mechanism to force it, and they say because we need workforce housing, but developers don’t make much there, so there’s more suburban. In other areas, the developers have more of a financial stake and responsibility in the long term consequences of the development. But here, we are very development friendly and the lack of that money or those regulations or inputs have a significant negative effect on infrastructure.
Regulations: When you go to other places, you can tell the amount of small businesses by the amount of regulations. If we want a robust and healthy small business – I mean small, 2-10 employees, people’s dreams, families’ hopes, kinds of businesses, we have to control the regulatory environment. Big entities can handle those all day long, but small ones are just trying to navigate. And it’s estimated that 80% of small businesses go out of business in the first 7 years. But it’s better when the regulations are less and we should be big advocates of small business, but right now it’s a tough environment.
Budget: The Biggie. The Commissioners budget decisions are how easily the regular people and residents can navigate through life with ease or not and have their taxes work for the things that they need. Currently and recently, since 2019, the Commission has gone from a surplus to a severe structural deficit. The biggest culprits are employee and retired employee costs, and the increased social services.
Who we elect as our Commissioners has a direct and significant effect on our everyday lives. Do we want a system that eases the barriers and burdens on these young, old, middle and working class populations through less regulation and taxes so they can find stability or upward mobility? Or do we want to tax them more in property tax, c- tax, sales tax, gas tax, regulations, traffic, assessments (this one is a big topic, coming in different areas) etc, so that we can fund a couple groups very well? That is the question that the Commissioners answer.
That is why County Commissioners matter so much, and why I want to represent you, and earn your vote!
Support Trista Gomez To Win In Washoe District 3
You can help change the direction of Washoe County with just one vote! Support Trista Gomez with a contribution to the Friends of Trista Gomez who are working hard to get her elected.
With your contribution of just $20.26, you can help the campaign:
Buy more radio time - $50 each spot
Buy more television time - $80 - $2000 per spot
Social Media Campaign for one day - $500
Printing 5,000 door hangers to distribute to voters - $500
Support Trista Gomez today, so we can change the direction of Washoe County.
