Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Voters will get Strip arena proposal after Assembly’s rejection

Arena

AP Photo/Cathleen Allison

Nevada Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, left, and Sen. Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas, speak on the Senate floor at the Legislature in Carson City on Thursday, March 17, 2011. The Senate passed a resolution Thursday rejecting an initiative petition to create a taxing district for a sports arena on the Strip, which the Assembly rejected Friday.

CARSON CITY – The initiative petition to create a Las Vegas Strip taxing district to build a $500 million, 22,000-seat sports and entertainment arena was officially laid to rest Friday in the Nevada Legislature and will go to voters next year.

The Assembly adopted a Senate resolution opposing a plan that would have imposed a 0.9 percent increase in the sales and use tax in a new taxing district to finance the project.

The resolution, however, noted that the Legislature has authority to offer a competing arena proposal and will do so for voter consideration.

The only “no” voice vote Friday on the resolution was cast by Assemblywoman Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas. Assemblywoman Melissa Woodbury, R-Las Vegas, abstained because her father is involved in pushing the project, which is backed by Caesars Entertainment and opposed by MGM Resorts International.

The initiative petition had more than 220,000 signatures from registered voters, while only 97,002 were needed.

There is an appeal in Nevada Supreme Court and in district court in Carson City to block the petition, claiming it is flawed. The arguments in district court are set for April for opponents of the arena to prove that many of the signatures are invalid. Removing invalid signatures would leave it short of the 97,002 signatures required, opponents argue.

The Senate resolution opposing the Strip arena said the Clark County Commission “has declined on several occasions to adopt a tax increase for an arena as proposed” by the initiative petition.

It also said the taxes collected under the proposal “will not be available to support any of the services essential to the residents of Nevada,” which is facing a deep budget crisis.

The resolution, passed unanimously in the Senate on Thursday, says the Legislature intends to propose a competing plan to the one pushed by Caesars Entertainment.

Caesars Entertainment had already given up on trying to win legislators’ support for the resort-corridor sales tax, deciding it will hope for voters’ approval in 2012.

In addition, there are at least two other arena proposals for the Las Vegas area.

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