Wednesday, Nov. 19, 1997 | 11:14 a.m.
The County Commission's decision to ask voters whether the sales tax should be raised a quarter-cent to help finance $3 billion in water and sewer improvements has set the stage for the 1998 election season.
"This will be used by everybody running for office who is pandering to the public for votes," Commissioner Mary Kincaid said Tuesday following nearly two hours of public testimony.
The election will become a "public referendum on growth," said Mark Brown of the Howard Hughes Corp., one of the chief backers of the sales tax increase.
"Every candidate is going to run against growth," said Brown. "If that happens, the valley loses."
Juanita Clark, president of the 10,000-member Charleston Heights Neighborhood Preservation Association, predicted a "massive push politically to identify" commissioners who voted to impose the tax.
Phil Stout, president of the Nevada Association of Independent Businesses, expected the public would "speak loudly at the next election."
The board's decision could also hurt the County Commission's efforts to get its agenda approved when the state Legislature meets in 1999.
"This destroys our credibility with the Legislature," Kincaid said, considering that some commissioners who told state lawmakers they would support the tax increase wound up voting against it.
"We told the Legislature that this was our responsibility," Commission Chairwoman Yvonne Atkinson Gates said. "We supported and endorsed it, but when it came down to making a tough decision, they didn't."
David Goldwater, chairman of the Assembly Infrastructure Committee, said that failure to impose the tax was "indicative of the problem we've always had with Southern Nevada at the Legislature -- the ability to speak with one voice."
The Legislature had given the county the authority it asked for to raise the sales tax a quarter-cent to offset water rates and connection charges and provide a more stable funding source for the $3 billion project.
The board voted 4-3, coming one vote short of the five needed to approve Kincaid's motion to impose the tax, which would have taken effect Jan. 1, 1998, and raised $44 million during its first year of collections.
Commissioners Erin Kenny, Lorraine Hunt and Lance Malone voted against the increase.
But a motion by Kenny to place an advisory question on the November 1998 ballot was approved 5-2, with an amendment by Commissioner Bruce Woodbury stating that the commission endorses the sales tax increase.
Kincaid and Commissioner Myrna Williams voted against that motion.
"This is a political decision despite protests to the contrary," said Billy Vassiliadis, president of R&R Advertising and a lobbyist for the gaming industry, which supported the sales tax increase.
Malone has been opposed to imposing the tax since it went to the Legislature last January. Kenny and Hunt had said repeatedly that they supported the tax and would vote to impose it but changed their position after the Legislature gave the commission that authority in July.
Kenny, Hunt and Williams are all up for re-election.
"It's just unfortunate that re-election politics overcame the need to analyze this issue on its merits," Brown said.
Kenny and Hunt said they voted to do what their constituents wanted -- a chance to vote on the question.
Kenny has said her decision had nothing to do with her upcoming re-election campaign, but was based on advice from her late mother to listen to her constituents when they wanted something strongly enough.
A survey of her constituents showed that 80 percent wanted the chance to vote on it.
But they may have turned off the faucet on major campaign contributions from the gaming and development industries that had once favored them.
"Obviously, Erin Kenny and Lorraine Hunt didn't vote the way we wanted them to," said gaming lobbyist Greg Ferraro. "We advocated a position, they didn't support it. Do the math."
Chuck Muth, chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus, said he appreciated the position commissioners were in, caught between gaming and development companies that can raise big campaign dollars and people who can get out the vote.
"Sending the tax to a vote of the people is the acknowledgment of that political reality," Muth said. "By sending it to the people it shows you're responding to the will of the constituents."
Muth said he will launch a campaign to defeat the sales tax.
Williams may have made herself vulnerable to anti-tax opponents, but the only person who has so far mentioned he may run against her is Mark Smith, a former chamber of commerce director who has himself spoken in favor of the tax.
Williams' constituents also seemed more inclined to let her make the decision for them, with an informal survey showing 65 percent supported imposing the tax now.
Also, her vote is in line with the gaming industry and the unions, which have been loyal supporters during Williams' 13-year political career.
The sales tax increase was conceived by the Integrated Resources Planning Advisory Committee to shift some of the burden for financing water and sewer improvements from residential and commercial customers onto tourists. The committee was composed largely of casino representatives and developers.
And while local water rates are going to increase 70 percent over the next 15 years, the sales tax would have kept the regional water rate from quadrupling between now and 2012, water officials said.
Connection charges also are expected to soar without the sales tax -- from a current rate of $3,000 for a household connection to almost 10 times that 27 years from now.
"The potential for increased water rates won't slow down growth, but it will affect people's pocketbooks without allowing tourists to participate," said Scott Higginson, a spokesman for the Del Webb Corp.
Pat Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said she will reconvene the Integrated Resources Planning Advisory Committee to see what other recommendations can be made.
Meanwhile, the water rates and connection charges are the only things paying for the regional water system.
"We can do that for the next 15 years," Mulroy said.
Chimed in SNWA Deputy Manager Richard Wimmer: "Without this additional funding, water rates are going to increase significantly to pay the bills."
archive
