Mayor: North Las Vegas has money for projects

By Jeff Pope

Wednesday, March 11, 2009 | 7:30 p.m.

North Las Vegas Mayor Michael Montandon said his city has "money in the bank" to push ahead with about $476 million worth of projects this year despite declining revenue.

Slumping tax revenue last year created a massive state budget shortfall. The city relies on state-shared revenue to pay its employees and its electricity bills, Montandon said, speaking at the Kiwanis Club Las Vegas meeting today.

"If you look at the decline in tax revenues and you annualize them and you look at this (fiscal) year, they look pretty bad," he said. "If you look at the last three months and annualize it, you just cry."

The building boom that preceded the current economic struggle supplied the city with development fees and allowed it to sell bonds to fund the $476 million in improvement projects.

The city will break ground this year on the $20 million first phase of the 135-acre Craig Ranch Regional Park and the $27 million Sky View Multi-generational Center.

Construction of the new nine-story, $130 million city hall is scheduled to begin in May.

"We are getting construction prices we will never be able to beat," Montandon said. "The money's in the bank. We sold those bonds and paid for city hall two years ago."

Bonds are not used to pay daily operating costs. The city's 2,200 employees account for about three quarters of the city's expenses. Revenue has dropped more than 25 percent in the past year.

"Without spending the cash we have in the bank, we're spending more money than we're paying out in salaries and it leaves nothing to keep the lights on and buy cars and all the other things we do," he said.

That doesn't mean city hall will go dim. The city started saving money about two years ago and maintains about $32 million in reserves to pay for operating costs.

To offset the lack of revenue, the city froze open positions and trimmed department budgets by 3 percent to save a total of $15.6 million this year. The city also is working to trim nearly $23 million from the 2009-2010 budget.

Montandon is leaving office in June after 12 years because of term limits, but the Republican said he plans to run for governor.

Looking back on his tenure, Montandon said North Las Vegas is often overlooked because of its larger neighbor. But it's been fun working in the background of Las Vegas and its animated mayor, Oscar Goodman, he said.

"Living in the shadow of someone who sucks all the oxygen out of the air like Oscar does is wonderful," he said. "We can actually do our work. We can plug along and get things done."

Jeff Pope can be reached at 990-2688 or [email protected]