Over three years ago, Nye County Public Works began a campaign to establish a county-specific diesel tax – a move public works director Tom Bolling has continually stressed is necessary in order to bolster the department’s highly-strained road budget. Despite the state of area roadways and the continual complaints about their deteriorating condition, however, first the community and then the Nye County Commission both rejected the proposal.
The Nye County diesel tax was put before voters in the form of a ballot question in the 2024 Primary Election, where it was soundly defeated. This led Bolling to turn to the Nye County Commissioners. Under Nevada Revised Statute, the commission, by a two-thirds vote, would be able to authorize the five-cents-per-gallon diesel tax themselves.
An emotional Bolling made his plea for this during the commission’s Tuesday, Dec. 3 meeting but after a round of discussion and debate, the board declined to take action.
“We held six public workshops for the diesel tax back in 2021, 2022,” Bolling began. “It was asked for a question to be put on the ballot… It was not approved… The other budget-increasing item we had in the general election (sales tax increase ballot question) was also not approved. We are, however, still experiencing overwhelming requests from the public and some from this board.”
Bolling reported that there were 1,240 requests for road maintenance filed with public works in 2023 and as of the Dec. 3 meeting, 2024’s request count was at 1,160.
“That is 2,400 requests in two years. Out of those requests, we have finished around 711 of those. We’ve only been able to rectify 711 of the 2,400 requests that we’ve received,” Bolling emphasized. “And yet, we currently exhaust all of our funding every year. All of our funding for doing maintenance, all of our funding for doing pot hole patching, weed mowing, everything we do – we exhaust our funding.”
Nye County, the third largest in the U.S., contains over 3,000 miles of maintained roads which, given the road department’s current budget, Bolling said averages out to about $7,000 per mile in available funds.
“That’s nothing. Our costs are well over that. That’s why we can only maintain a tiny amount of miles per year,” Bolling stated. “We desperately need funding or we’re going to have roads that continue to disintegrate.”
He explained that in 2025, the county was set to redo its Pavement Condition Index, which measures the condition of the roads. When that occurs, Bolling predicted that the PCI will drop to an average rating of “failing.”
“Now we’ve got to ask ourselves. Should we allow our roads to critically fail? Or should we just not care about dust abatement within the valley and just grade down those roads that need chip seal and go back to where we were when they were all gravel?” Nye County Commission Chair Debra Strickland queried to kick off the board discussion.
Commissioner Frank Carbone was obviously frustrated by the fact that the public voted down the diesel tax, asserting, “We’re never going to catch up, unless somehow or another we can add to the fuel taxes… The people voted and said, we like to live with the crappy roads, so as far as I’m concerned, they can have the crappy roads.”
“You get what you pay for,” commissioner Donna Cox chimed in. “What do we do? The people have spoken.”
Some commissioners noted that they believed there was a misunderstanding among the public about the ballot question, which was intended to create a Nye-County specific diesel tax that would then provide revenue directly to the Nye County Public Works Dept. for local roads, not state highways.
Carbone added that he feels another main issue behind the voters’ rejection was the word “tax,” which is something of a taboo in the Republican-majority county.
“The people of Nye County voted this down by 67%,” commissioner Bruce Jabbour stated. “I believe in what you’re trying to do… I apologize for the situation we’re in but I can’t go against what the people voted on.”
With all of the board members in concurrence, no motion was offered and the item died for lack of action.
The next opportunity to have the diesel tax proposal placed on the ballot would be in the 2026 election cycle.
Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com