Thursday, March 20, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
MOST Southern Nevadans were hardly shocked at the news this week that efforts to instill property tax equity had broken down.
The Las Vegas City Council and the County Commission have not been known for political harmony. Previous encounters between the two have been sometimes less than polite, particularly in the area of taxation.
This latest attempt at detente failed -- actually it's officially tabled by the commission -- because some county residents would have subsidized cuts in property taxes in Las Vegas and North Las Vegas. That didn't bode well politically for the county commissioners.
Nor would it have been logical for the county to absorb portions of city tax cuts when the commissioners were complaining the cities were fast and loose with spending.
Add to that occasionally raw nerves between members of the two elected bodies, and it was a certainty the project would be doomed, at least in its present form. Clark County and Las Vegas already are sparring over an infrastructure funding plan which is to be taken to the Legislature. We hope that project has better luck. Two years ago, a battle over tax dollars degenerated into a circus.
City councilmen should not expect the county to pass the burden of tax equity onto their residents without sound reasons for doing so. And spending more than the other guy doesn't appear very sound.
The onus is on Las Vegas and North Las Vegas to demonstrate why their services are worth a $100 a year or more in taxes than the county's.
Members of the Las Vegas and North Las Vegas councils have painted themselves into a corner. It's incumbent on them to redesign this package to include deep cuts in the municipal budgets and less reliance on county funds -- certainly without tax hikes.
We don't think tax equity is impossible, if everyone were trying hard enough. But, maybe that's the real problem.
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