NOTES for May 15, 2008 Budget Ratification Meeting of the Commission for the Reconstruction of the Virginia and Truckee Railway

Hi folks,

Re: Virginia and Truckee Reconstruction project

(Construction update: currently tunnel work is ongoing on the American Flat tunnel. Also, new track is laid about halfway around American Flat and ballasting is happening today, Monday and Tuesday.)

Yesterday the Commission for the Reconstruction of the Virginia and Truckee held a short meeting to approve their proposed budget. It was nice to see a few members of the public show interest in what should have been a rather dry meeting.

The main announcement is that the Commission feels it now has enough funding to get the new track from American Flat down to and across Highway 50. Also, cost savings may come from a Nevada Attorney General decision that the cost of moving a gas pipeline (to install the Highway 50 bridge) will be borne by the Southwest Gas Company. A very rough estimate of the cost savings are on the order of $1 million dollars.

It was nice that the commission chair Bob Hadfield spent time during the meeting taking questions from the public. Soon to be ex-Mayor of Carson City Marv Teixeira also spent time talking about what can be accomplished before they "run out of Schlitz."

Then, after the meeting, Bob Hadfield spent an hour fielding questions from me as well as two Carson City residents who oppose the proposed increase in Carson sales tax. There is a proposal to raise the Carson City / County sales tax by 1/8 percent to provide another 10 million in funding in exchange for 5% of the gross ticket revenue for 99 years.

This will be a tough sell in Carson City, and the three of us indicated that the project needs to do a much better job of getting consistent and updated info on their website (vtrailway.com) so the public can make a properly informed decision.

The current budget does not include anything related to solving the Gold Hill - Virginia City link currently owned by the Gray family, who runs the real live modern day Virginia and Truckee Railroad (http://www.virginiatruckee.com)

Budget numbers:

PAST AND CURRENT

As of 6/30/2007, the project had 17.9 million dollars in the bank. Up to 6/30/2008, the budget shows 1.24 million more dollars coming in from taxes, grants, "interlocal co-op agreements," license plate sales and interest earned.

With expenditures for the year ending 6/30/08 running at $6.3 million (6 million capital outlay plus service, supplies and debt service), the Commission will end the fiscal year with 13.2 million still in the bank.

One Carsonite asked, "how much of the 37 million total funding needs to be paid back?" The Commission answered that of the total raised, only the $500,000 loan for the #18 locomotive must be paid back, and is reflected in the debt service number.

BUDGET PROJECTION TO 6/30/09

With planned expenditures to 6/30/09 of nearly $8.2 million, and fundraising limited to $1.4 million, by 6/09 the bank balance is expected to be drawn down to $8.3 million.

So if anyone has an extra $21 million dollars please send it to Nevada, thanks!