Thursday, March 6, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
A bare-bones needs assessment by Clark County managers that excludes parks and a Strip monorail has uncovered $2 billion to $3 billion in unfunded public services over the next 10 years.
That's 25 percent of the $7 billion to $10 billion projected by experts looking at a much larger list of public improvements, but it's still almost three times the amount of extra revenue sources currently on the table.
The proposed increases in the room tax, real estate transfer tax and sales tax could raise as much as $900 million over the next decade.
County Commission Chairwoman Yvonne Atkinson Gates said she planned to meet today with officials from the five incorporated cities in the county.
"I am trying to build a consensus so that we can go to the Legislature united," Gates said Thursday.
A press conference is set for 10 a.m. Friday at the Clark County Government Center to release the needs assessment.
Gates and other local officials also plan to present the data Friday to the Assembly Infrastructure Committee, which is meeting at the Alfred Merritt Smith water treatment facility at Lake Mead.
One of the committee's first major actions will be whether to approve a bill raising the sales tax by a quarter-percent to help build a second pipeline for Southern Nevada's water needs.
The bill should come out next week for the Legislature to impose the tax hike to help finance the $1.7 billion pipeline, Infrastructure Committee Chairman David Goldwater, D-Las Vegas, said.
Key lawmakers have said the bill won't get the two-thirds required for approval. However, a bill to enable the Clark County Commission to levy the tax has a better chance of passage, lawmakers said.
Water ranked highest on the county's needs assessment study. Assistant County Manager Randy Walker contacted the finance departments of the county's five cities, water purveyors and sanitation districts to identify their unfinanced needs for the next 10 years.
"Basically, this is what people say they need in order to meet the basic infrastructure," Walker said.
Monorails were left out because of uncertainty over whether a private or public system will be built and the level of federal and state funding that could be available.
No firm numbers were available for parks.
Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones has said parks are crucial to maintaining a decent quality of life, and talked about trying to develop a partnership with the business community to help pay for new parks.
The Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce said it would discuss what it was willing to put on the table once a needs assessment was completed.
To date, only the gaming and home-building industries have come forward with proposals to help pay for those unfunded services.
The gaming industry has proposed a 1 percent room tax increase and the transfer of existing room-tax revenue to raise a total of at least $27 million a year.
Home builders have agreed to an increase on real estate transaction fees for another $11 million, and say another $10 million could come out of the real estate transfer tax or liquor, cigarette and other revenues municipal governments receive.
Their proposals, combined with revenue from the quarter-cent sales tax proposal by the water district, would raise almost $90 million a year.
Gates and Commissioners Myrna Williams and Mary Kincaid have yet to deliver on a comprehensive package they said they are developing.
Gates said she hopes the needs assessment will encourage other members of the business community to ante up for infrastructure.
"We're trying to get stakeholders up to the plate rather than force them to do x, y and z," Gates said. "I think they will when they find out the need is not $8 billion."
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