Nevada Tax Assessor’s Racist Antics

If you’re Latino and happen to be traveling across Nye County, Nevada, be sure not to wear a hard hat – the Tax Assessor there might think you’re undocumented. Her name is Shirley Matson and she recently sent an email to Nye County Sheriff  Tony DeMeo asking if he had, in the words of the Las Vegas Review-Journal,

asked if the county had verified the (new jail construction) workers’ citizenship, noting they looked Latino.

Sheriff DeMeo called Matson out as a racist and said that her question amounted to racial profiling. He said he has no reason to investigate worker’s citizenship status.

Matson, who calls herself a conservative Republican, says she has concerns for the safety of her staff.

“My staff, me, taxpayers coming to our offices, other town and county employees can plainly see that the construction workers are all Mexican/Latino, non-English speaking and I’m getting complaints,” wrote Matson, who moved to Pahrump from San Diego in 2007 and was elected county assessor in November.

There is a bit of a telenovela back story to all this; there is bad blood between the Sheriff and the Tax Assessor, but their pleito is old and has nothing to do with immigration. Meanwhile the local bi-weekly newspaper, The Pahrump Valley Times, called for Matson to resign in a front page editorial.

“You are neither fit for office nor a trustworthy servant of the public good,” the editorial said of Matson.

O-ra-le! We’re all waiting for the next installment.

Follow Victor Landa on Twitter: @vlanda