The Sacred Cow Grazing in the Corner - Local Government Payroll

If you’ve read the recent This Is Reno six-part series on employee payrolls at the City of Reno and Washoe County, you probably needed a stiff drink—or at least a calculator. It turns out that while residents are tightening their belts, local government is busy loosening theirs to make room for bloated paychecks, lush benefits, and zero accountability when it comes to fiscal responsibility.

Washoe County May 20, 2025 Budget Briefing Summary Page 1

Here’s the math no one at 1001 E. Ninth Street seems willing to do out loud: 80% of Washoe County’s general budget fund goes to employee compensation—for frontline workers and emergency services, but an unequal amount largely for a management class that seems to multiply like rabbits and justify its existence with endless layers of “strategic” job titles. Meanwhile, the County Commission—led with the tax-hike torch by Commissioner Alexis Hill—wants to raise your taxes to keep this gravy train running.

Commission Chair Alexis Hill said on Nevada Newsmakers, “But I also think we need to be realistic and pay for what we need to pay for.” She added that the county has been “great stewards” and doesn’t want to lay off employees. Can someone point out to Hill unless the amounts being paid to employees, without their lush benefits, PERS paid for by the county and health insurance are changed-the county will have no choice in the next budget cycle except to lay off employees unless Hill does what she is itching to do and that is to raise your taxes.

The county doesn’t have to pay for health insurance and PERS for employees so when did that become ‘what we need to pay for.’

Washoe County May 20, 2025 Budget Briefing Summary Page 2 - '‘Personnel is the general fund’s major cost - almost 80% of expenditures.'‘

Interesting timing, Alexis. A year ago during your campaign, tax increases were strangely absent from your platform. It’s almost like raising taxes while courting votes is… unpopular? Too bad the electorate didn’t get the full story then—because if they had, we might be hearing a different voice in your chair today.

Let’s not let the City of Reno off the hook either. Facing its own budgetary black hole, Reno is now looking at jacking up sewer fees, passing along credit card surcharges to residents paying for city services (how generous), and finding new ways to nickel-and-dime a public that’s already spent.

Here’s a revolutionary idea: cut positions and adjust salaries. Yes, that sacred cow grazing in the corner—local government payroll—is overdue for a trimming. But you won’t hear that discussed in public meetings, because the real budget crisis isn’t just financial, it’s political. No one wants to touch the elephant in the room when that elephant draws a six-figure salary and has a title like “Assistant Deputy Associate Director of Strategic Alignment.”

City and county leaders have no long-term plan. Just Band-Aids and buzzwords. "Fee restructuring." "Revenue optimization." Translation: you pay more while they do less about their own spending.

Let’s be real: Washoe County and the City of Reno don’t have the money to maintain the status quo, and won’t for years to come. The economic engine has changed, and the public isn't buying business-as-usual anymore. So the question is, how long can they dodge the inevitable? Because at this rate, they’re not budgeting—they’re just kicking the fiscal can into a deeper and deeper crater.

So while you're scraping together money to pay your rising utility bills and dodging the 3% “convenience fee” for paying online, remember: somewhere in local government, there’s a manager making six figures to schedule meetings about your “service experience.”

You can't make this stuff up.