The town staff will be kept busy in the upcoming months now that they've been officially directed by the Pahrump Town Board to research whether or not the town can levy a tax to help fund the Pahrump Valley Fire Rescue Service and possibly the Nye County Sheriff's Office.

Vice Chairman John McDonald proposed the idea in the wake of a county-wide half-cent public safety sales tax being rejected by the Nye County Board of Commissioners on Dec. 18.

"I think it behooves us to determine whether or not there is any way the town can work to raise the revenues to improve our staff in the fire department, and perhaps assist the sheriff's department as well and improve his staffing and operations," McDonald said.

Pahrump, as an unincorporated town and not a city, may not have the authority to levy a tax.

The vice chairman said he spend the majority of the holiday time researching the matter and said he had difficulty finding any conclusive answer to the question of the plan's feasibility.

"I can not find any authority for the town, or a city, or even the county to increase the sales tax," McDonald said. "The state legislature is the only authority that I can find that can increase sales tax."

He asked Carl Joerger, town counsel, to look into the matter and have a report prepared for the first board meeting in February.

Joerger did say, however, that after doing a very cursory search when he saw the agenda item, it did not look promising.

"But I will keep looking, though, and I'll have a report prepared for you," Joerger said.