Sunday, March 30, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- The name of the leading character couldn't have been scripted with more symbolic significance: Goldwater.
The reason it works so well is that Las Vegas needs more water, and the assemblyman in charge of growth-related issues, David Goldwater, has to decide who's going to fork over the gold to pay for it.
As the Legislature heads into its third full month, intrigue over how to finance growth in Las Vegas has added an air of political drama.
The issue took an interesting plot twist a few days ago when two county commissioners offered a plan to create a trust fund, comprised of different tax sources, to pay for some of the problems in Las Vegas, America's fastest-growing city.
In addition to Goldwater, key players in the drama include the Clark County Commission and casino lobbyists. Standing in the wings, unwilling so far to step onto center stage, is Gov. Bob Miller. And average taxpayers are being called upon to pay a hefty price for admission.
"There are two things in the state Legislature -- water and schools," Goldwater said. "Those are the missing parts ... in financing growth."
Serious discussions about those issues began more than a year ago, when County Commissioner Myrna Williams, a former legislator, tried to bring together those whom she refers to as "stakeholders."
Stakeholders are the deep-pocket groups that benefit from growth in Las Vegas, including developers, casino representatives and business leaders.
Their plan was to extract more money from some of the "stakeholders" to pay for schools, water and mass transit. The fear was that taxpayers in Clark County, who continue to raise levies on themselves to build more schools and beef up the police department, might finally revolt.
"We said, 'It's time to stop nickel-and-diming people,'" commission Chairman Yvonne Atkinson Gates said. "Let's look at growth comprehensively."
After the business community's efforts to do a needs assessment failed, Williams said she was asked in December to help put together a plan to present to the Legislature, which convened the following month.
Since then, Gates and Williams, with the help of Assistant County Manager Randy Walker, have crafted a plan that would place some tax money into a trust fund -- Gates now calls it a "blending of revenues" -- to pay for $3.8 billion in "survival" needs over the next 10 years. The plan is up for discussion at a commission meeting Tuesday.
Since word got out about the plan, it's been criticized, despite being the only concrete, comprehensive proposal to address the valley's growth needs.
"Yvonne and Myrna came up with an idea when there wasn't an idea out there," said Commissioner Mary Kincaid, who supports the concept of the "survival" proposal, but not all the specifics such as the trust fund. "I don't understand why the people involved could not pull out the bad things and work with the good things, rather than tear (Gates and Williams) apart and throw out the whole idea."
Others have criticized the plan for only including "survival" needs and not parks, fire stations or roads. Gates and Williams say they wanted to focus on a few problems that need immediate attention.
"How do you eat an 800-pound gorilla?" Williams asked. "One bite at a time."
The tax money Gates and Williams want to blend includes about $50 million in room taxes and real estate transaction fees that casino executives and home builders recently agreed to contribute after taking heat for benefiting from growth but not paying enough.
Gates and Williams are encouraging other businesses, including time-share properties and those represented by the Chamber of Commerce, to step forward with a self-imposed tax, such as an increased business-license fee.
That likelihood is less certain.
"There are 30,000 businesses in Las Vegas, and the chamber represents about 4,500," said Tim Cashman, an auto dealer who spearheads the chamber's governmental policy. "It's very difficult for us to reach a broad consensus in the business community in regard to raising a tax for infrastructure."
Gates and Williams also want the Legislature, or the County Commission, to set up an interim committee to decide how to pay for everything that doesn't fall into the "survival" category.
One hope is that an interim committee can get government officials headed in one direction.
Some citizens have complained, in letters to the editor and other forums, that officials from city and county governments send mixed signals when it comes to growth.
For instance, County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury suggested that a moratorium on Strip casino construction might give those in charge time to figure out how to corral growth. Around the same time, the City Council approved a 20,000-home development.
The result: a frustrated public that, according to polls, says it wants Las Vegas' population to remain the same or "decrease."
With Gates and Williams working on their plan in Clark County, the Legislature, which convened in January, also began grappling with growth.
A special Infrastructure Committee, with Goldwater, a 27-year-old financial consultant, in charge, was established in the Assembly.
At the top of the agenda has been a plan casinos and home builders are pushing to raise $3 billion for a water project that could boost the county's population from 1.2 million to 2.5 million in 20 years. The centerpiece is a second water pipe, already under construction, from Lake Mead. Only one pipe provides water to the area.
A bill in the Legislature proposes a dramatic increase in water rates and hookups on new homes to pay for the water project.
More contentiously, the bill is seeking a quarter-cent sales tax increase in Clark County, which, along with Washoe and Churchill counties, already has the highest rate in the state, at 7 percent.
That doesn't sit well with some seniors and other residents, who have testified in Goldwater's committee that Nevada casinos, which pay the lowest gross revenue tax in the nation, should pay a lot more than a modest room tax increase.
Added to the mix has been a running feud between Goldwater and Gates, played out in Southern Nevada newspapers, over who has a workable solution to growth.
Goldwater, for example, doesn't like the idea of a trust fund, while Gates says nothing is etched in stone, but at least she's trying to move the issue along.
Meanwhile, Goldwater and Sen. Jon Porter, R-Boulder City, plan to introduce legislation that would use new room tax and real estate transaction money, combined with more than $7 million in state funds, to build and rehabilitate schools across Nevada.
Right now, each of Nevada's 17 school districts raises money for new schools by asking taxpayers time and again to pay more. In some counties, taxpayers are saying they don't want to do that anymore.
Even so, Goldwater and Porter expect an uphill climb. Miller, Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, and Assembly Speaker Joe Dini, D-Yerington, don't want state money used for school construction.
Miller's low-key role in the growth debate has led to grumbling from some sectors.
"The governor needs to say, 'This is how we're going to solve the problem, and this is who's going to pay,'" said one observer who asked not to be named.
Miller, whose $3.04 billion two-year spending plan includes no new taxes, has said all along that each county should manage its own unique concerns.
He said he won't sign a bill raising taxes in Clark County, but he will approve legislation that gives the County Commission the authority to raise the sales tax.
Critics say Miller's stance has closed off a funding option and forced Goldwater and Gates, neither of whom supposedly thinks the other is much of a straight shooter, into a standoff.
"You shouldn't interpret speaking loudly or often as leadership," said Jim Mulhall, Miller's chief of staff. "He's spoken behind the scenes."
Because Miller is letting events unfold on their own, critics say, a leadership vacuum has developed that's being filled by the one powerful sector that public officials in Nevada traditionally look to for direction: casinos.
The central figure in nearly every growth discussion has been Las Vegas gaming lobbyist Billy Vassiliadis, Miller's top adviser. Gates and Williams called him last week to try out their "survival" plan on him before going to the media with it.
Vassiliadis, who maintains that casinos, which finance about half the state budget, pay their fair share, says, straight-faced, that the industry is going to lay low for a while.
"Nobody's focusing on solutions," Vassiliadis said. "The people that were elected need to come up with the plans."
Casino lobbyists Harvey Whittemore and Richard Bunker, who have raised their voices with one reporter over what they perceive as critical coverage, have been less visible in recent days, although at any given time at least a half-dozen less high-profile casino lobbyists are always on hand.
The unanswered question is whether anything substantive will emerge this session to solve growth problems in Las Vegas.
There are rumblings that taxes may go up on other industries -- mining, trucking and giant national retail stores, like Macy's -- but no bills have been introduced.
Whatever finally unfolds, many observers think the dramatic tension will percolate at least until July, when the Legislature is expected to adjourn and the curtain on the first act falls, shifting the focus from Carson City back to what Gov. Miller has always said should be the appropriate stage: Las Vegas.
SUN REPORTER Jeff Schweers contributed to this story.
archive
