Governor’s tax lawyer castigates assessor

By Cy Ryan

Saturday, July 19, 2008 | 2 a.m.

In the melodrama that is Nevada politics, a state tax official says the Elko County assessor is “a baldfaced liar.”

Oh, and the state official also called the county assessor “yellow-bellied.”

Which is to say that John Marvel, a member of the state Tax Commission and an attorney representing Gov. Jim Gibbons on some matters, stridently rejects claims by Elko County Assessor Joe Aguierre that Marvel pressured Aguierre to approve a property tax break for Gibbons.

For Aguirre to make such claims, Marvel said, is “despicable.”

Don’t seat them together at your next dinner party.

Aguierre added to Gibbons’ recent headaches by saying he’d had misgivings about allowing the governor to claim that 40 acres he had purchased in 2007 in Elko County were used for agricultural purposes.

Gibbons said he had leased the land back to the original owner for grazing. That would qualify the property for a big property tax break, reducing the bill from about $2,000 to less than $40. The tax break is intended to help struggling ranchers and farmers.

Aguierre complained that Marvel, in filing for the tax break on Gibbons’ behalf, hadn’t included proof of $5,000 worth of agricultural income from the preceding year, the threshold required to qualify for the tax deferral. He said Marvel “should have known better. He has done this before. It’s like pulling teeth to get the information.”

Marvel then provided two checks showing Gibbons’ revenue from the land. Aguierre claimed the checks were never cashed. Marvel has shown the canceled checks to the Sun and they looked legit.

Aguierre said he felt pressured — but he couldn’t say quite how — to allow the application to proceed. He acknowledged that the two men have not even spoken. Aguierre refused to sign off on the deferral application — “I didn’t want my name on it,” he said — but no matter, because his signature isn’t required.

To protect himself from a “sticky situation,” he said, he then forwarded all the paperwork to the Elko County district attorney’s office in case something were to come of the matter.

The D.A.’s office has shrugged it off, saying it had no reason to investigate.

The tension between Marvel and Aguierre escalated this week when the assessor remarked on KNPR’s “State of Nevada” public affairs show that he also felt pressured to renew an ongoing agricultural tax break for Marvel himself and his secretary, because they sell horses on their land.

Aguierre said he questions that, because when he drove by once, the horses looked to be the same ones as those he saw on a previous drive-by.

Marvel, besides calling Aguirre names, said he’s bothered that the assessor never bothered to give him a call to sort all of this out. “If he (Aguirre) had any problems, he could have talked to me or the governor. I never knew there was a problem until I saw it in the media last week,” Marvel said.