Saturday, March 31, 2007 | 7:12 a.m.
Commissioner Tom Collins doesn't want Clark County employees living in places such as Pahrump or Bullhead City, Ariz.
Under a proposed ordinance that Collins plans to introduce next month , county employees hired after July 1 would have to maintain their principal residence in Clark County.
"If they are making wages in Clark County, they ought to be spending them in Clark County," Collins said.
He argues that if the county workers live, pay taxes, shop and school their children in Clark County, they will be more likely to care about the issues they work on every day.
Officials said Friday 100 to 140 Clark County employees live outside the county. Those employees would not be affected because the proposed ordinance would apply only to workers hired after the law goes into effect.
Collins said leaders of the Firefighter's Union Local 1908 and the Service Employees International Union Local 1107, which represent more than 9,000 county employees, do not object to the proposal.
One concern likely to be raised is how the ordinance would affect the county's operations in Laughlin. A lack of affordable housing there makes Bullhead City, located across the Colorado River, an attractive place to live.
Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, who represents Laughlin, said he is open to a discussion about the residency requirement, but wants to take a closer look at what effect the ordinance would have in places such as Laughlin.
Clark County is taking another shot at wresting a larger portion of hotel room tax revenue from cities.
The tax on hotel rooms brought in about $200 million last fiscal year. Most of that money funds the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, but 10 percent goes to local governments.
The money is distributed based on populations of the unincorporated county, Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas, Boulder City and Mesquite. Although 90 percent of the tax money is generated at Strip resorts and other hotels in unincorporated Clark County, the current distribution formula results in the county getting only about 40 percent.
The county, under pressure to find new funding sources for parks and other projects, wants to redistribute any future increases in room tax revenue based on where it is generated.
A proposed compromise in July would have allowed each jurisdiction to continue receiving a base distribution equal to the amount it received in fiscal 2006. But any future growth in revenue would have been distributed based on the amount of revenue each jurisdiction generates - a formula more favorable to the county. The compromise also called for depositing half of the county's room-tax money in a fund for specified regional park projects to which cities would agree.
Commissioners, however, rejected that proposal.
But county staffers have proposed a new compromise and the county now seeks feedback from city officials.
The new proposal would be similar to the one made in July, but the redistribution formula would be phased in over five years, giving cities more time to adjust. In return, the amount of room tax money that the county would set aside for regional parks would be cut in half, to 25 percent.
The county plans a workshop April 11 to discuss the financially troubled University Medical Center's future.
Commissioners say they plan to discuss oversight options laid out in a report last month from the Lewin Group, a health care consulting firm. Those options include expanding the hospital, establishing a hospital advisory board or leasing the facility to a nonprofit organization.
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