Treasurer turns down county’s call for return of looted funds

By Cy Ryan

Friday, July 1, 2011 | 5:34 p.m.

Clark County may have to go to court to get returned the millions of dollars taken by the state, after the state Treasurer's Office turned aside the county's demand to return $102.5 million in disputed tax money.

Chief Deputy State Treasurer Mike Winebarger said the Treasurer's Office has defined lawful powers that don't include the authority to act on the county's request. In a letter to Clark County Counsel Mary Ann Miller, Winebarger said "We do not believe that it (the request) has been appropriately directed to the Office of State Treasurer."

Washoe County, which sent a letter to the Treasurer's Office Thursday demanding the return of $21 million, will probably face the same fate.

The Clark County Commission on June 7 directed staff to seek the refund and Miller sent a letter to state Treasurer Kate Marshall asking that the money be returned.

Miller said she turned the issue over to the Attorney General's Office to determine if it was a legitimate demand. Winebarger then sent the letter to Miller, rejecting the request.

In her letter, Miller said $54.5 million was diverted in local property tax from Clark County in fiscal year 2010 and so far this year $48 million has been grabbed by the state.

The issue was touched off by a Nevada Supreme Court ruling in May, finding that the state had illegally taken $62 million from the Clean Water Coalition in Clark County, which had raised the money for a pipeline project that had been abandoned because of the recession. Some read the ruling as declaring illegal all state seizures of local dollars -- unless they treated all local governments equally.