Sun, May 11, 2008 (2:08 a.m.)

Las Vegas’ finance director is putting a positive spin on what amounts to a gigantic slush fund for City Council members.

The director, Mark Vincent, says he will likely recommend that council members give up $5,000 apiece from their “special events” fund to save a subsidized lunch program for senior citizens from the budget ax.

How noble.

The gesture would still leave each of the seven council members, including Mayor Oscar Goodman, with $30,000 a year to blow on their constituents.

Parties, luncheons, gifts, holiday dinners, grand openings for community centers — pretty much any expenditure from this fund is allowed as long as it can be justified as having some benefit to voters, er, constituents.

We have written before that this fund, amounting to $245,000 a year, is unnecessary and even unethical. The fund gives incumbents an edge in every election, as their largesse is seldom bestowed anonymously.

Many council members even go so far as to use the fund to buy handouts such as pencils, water bottles, candy bars and beach balls emblazoned with their names.

Council members will try to portray themselves as magnanimous for chipping in a total of $35,000 to help save the $46,000 senior meals program. But with city revenue falling drastically because of the plunging economy and important city services facing cuts, they should be choosing this time to put an end, once and for all, to their slush fund.

The money that serves to ingratiate incumbents with their constituents should stay in the city’s general fund. Special events, which we are not opposed to on occasion, should be approved by the whole council.

We doubt seriously that the council, meeting in public, would ever approve even half of what is now being spent under the guise of serving constituent needs.