Car-dealer incentives are great, but should Carson City stop there?

Two weeks ago, Carson City supervisors announced their agreement to return up to 20 percent of the city's sales tax revenue from new car sales to Carson City auto dealers. This is by far the best (i.e., richest) incentive plan for any retailer I have seen or heard of. Not that I would actually know what's going on in other cities. But, what a plan! What ... a ... plan! Ah yes ... How does it go? "The best laid plans of ..."

Applause goes to the city supervisors for running fast on this; very fast, like mice on a treadmill as someone taps on the terrarium glass. Tap, tap, tap.

"The best laid plans of mice and men."

I always admire managers who think out-of-the box. In this case, out of the terrarium. The sales tax incentive is the manifestation of that type of thinking. I like it. Face it, no other segment of business in this city feeds sales taxes like the car dealers. They are the big cheese. A big piece of cheese held between two fingers belonging to a very big hand that waves over the city's terrarium, back and forth like a pendulum. But they were also given a big piece of cheese. A very big piece.

But the incentive plan raises questions. Could it be that this big piece of cheese may have some holes in it? Once it's out of the refrigerator and lays around on the counter long enough, its pungent smell will be picked up. Other businesses in the area may feel that they are due "something" of an incentive to stay.

Some, like Carson-Tahoe Hospital may feel they walked to the banquet with no cheese on the party trays at all, because they never threatened to leave the city in the first place. They made their commitment and backed it up with the building of the most ambitious medical facility going in the state of Nevada.

Does this plan symbolize an employer revering a young new stalwart who holds the threat of golden opportunities elsewhere, instead of honoring a steady long-term employee who never says anything, gets the job done, and has strong allegiance? Allegiance has - in some circles of society - been painted with a brush labeled "weakness" or "dependence." Because of that, allegiant employees are taken for granted.

Likewise, has Carson City taken Carson-Tahoe Hospital for granted? I'm not saying that this is true. Not at all. What I am saying is that because the auto incentive is so good, are there other levels of incentives available to other important businesses in our area, or maybe just one other? One perhaps like Carson-Tahoe Hospital? You know, sort of like a two-level bonus plan -- one that incites the "senior executives" and the other that serves the next executive bracket.

I realize that the city would go broke offering something to everyone. Again, not what I am saying or even implying. What I am referring to are top-flight incentives for top-gun sales tax and employment generators. I am also asking the question, when does it stop? What will prevent other sectors of business from asking for their share?

But giving something back to Carson-Tahoe Hospital cannot be looked at with the same set of eyes as "... other sectors of business." The hospital, like the auto dealers, stands on a sacred mound of its own. It too must be considered a "big cheese." Opinions differ on whether Carson-Tahoe Hospital's eligibility for any type of city funding is upheld by its private corporation status. But the city holds the keys to this particular cheese factory.

Personally, I don't see the harm in helping the hospital out. Look, the last thing I need is a mass manufacturing at City Hall of wax dolls molded in my shape that each come with its own set of needles and a picture of me. I'll settle for a possible phone call or two tomorrow morning that sound off with a Dragnet-like ring of "Dum De Dum Dum." Or in my case: "Dumb Di Dumb Dumb DiMambro." But all I am saying is that there may be something in this sales tax incentive for auto dealers that could prove heroic for the city if used wisely. Why not the hospital?

This is how I see it: The administration of Carson-Tahoe Hospital, namely CEO Ed Epperson, should be handed medals of honor for even envisioning such a landmark project as the hospital's new complex of health-care facilities. The auto dealers hold the tax dollars, but the hospital provides more than 1,100 people (soon to be 1,400) with jobs, and that additional 300 employees hired upon the completion of the new hospital are mainly nurses and doctors with solid income - income to burn in the city.

Everything is a risk. Not having a sales incentive for auto dealers is a risk. Having one is a risk. Helping the hospital with water and sewer taxes is a risk. Not helping them is a risk. Carson City unquestionably needs the auto dealers. In fact, it's an unconditional foregone conclusion.

For God's sake, I need the auto dealers. The Nevada Appeal needs the auto dealers. If our newspaper didn't have auto dealers as advertisers, I'd be the next in line asking the city for help. They're big. I know it. Everyone knows it. And they know it too. Besides, they are all gentlemen. But we also need the hospital, and for more than just city taxes or advertising revenues.

Carson City is not a big city. We have big surrounding mountains, but not a big city. Aside from auto dealers in aggregate, what is really out there as a major tax provider? Or a community service awareness leader, besides Carson-Tahoe Hospital? Wal-Mart may be City Hall's requiem for a dream for tax provision, but as far as community services are concerned, it's more like cleanup in aisle two, with small-to-medium size retailers being the ones swept up and then emptied unceremoniously from the mop bucket.

That said, if it were only me, I would stand in ovation to the city for its willingness to encourage the auto dealers. I would also look deeper into what it would mean to assist the hospital in some way that sends the message that we are really happy that it is committed to this city and for what its employees have done for our city.

n John DiMambro is publisher of the Nevada Appeal. Write to him at jdimambro@nevadaappeal.com.