Austerity for Thee, but Not for Me?

July 9, 2025 - Commissioner Alexis Hill Distrcit Special Fund disbursements.

Spending Spree? Alexis Hill’s $75,000 discretionary blowout raised a few eyebrows. If Washoe County taxpayers are wondering where fiscal responsibility went, they might find it buried under a pile of discretionary receipts. On Tuesday, July 8, 2025, just seven days into the new fiscal year, Commission Chair Alexis Hill reportedly spent $75,000 of her $100,000 discretionary fund—a bold move, especially with the county staring down the barrel of a $27 million budget deficit.

Let that sink in: while departments are keeping positions vacant, taxpayers are being warned of potential service reductions, and the county floats ideas of tax hikes, the Chair of the Commission is spending taxpayer funds like it's Black Friday in July.

What’s the rush? Did a community emergency erupt on July 1 that required nearly the entire annual fund to be used within the first week? Or is there something Chair Hill knows that the rest of us don’t?

Either way, the optics are troubling.

Discretionary funds are intended for community initiatives, emergency assistance, or high-impact local projects—not political pork or vanity spending. In times of fiscal health, these funds are an extra tool. In times of a multi-million-dollar shortfall, they should be the first thing on the chopping block—not a sacred cow.

Yet here we are: $27 million in the red, and each commissioner still sits atop a $100,000 taxpayer-funded slush pile, no questions asked.

County staff and essential services may soon be asked to “tighten belts,” and residents could face tax increases—something Hill herself has publicly floated to help patch the budget hole. But perhaps that tightening doesn’t apply to the Commission Chair’s purse strings.

There’s a word for this kind of behavior. “Tone-deaf” comes to mind. At best, it’s political hubris; at worst, it’s fiscal malpractice.

In any responsible organization facing a massive budget deficit, discretionary spending would be paused—if not eliminated entirely—until the house is back in order. Yet, Washoe County’s commissioners remain flush with spending power, detached from the real cost to taxpayers and oblivious to the trust they're quickly eroding.

Chair Hill’s early and aggressive use of discretionary funds sets a disturbing precedent. If this is how the year starts, what can we expect when the fiscal belt gets even tighter?

Perhaps it's time Washoe County residents asked for a new kind of discretionary fund—one that commissioners can only access after showing they’ve earned the community’s trust.