Las Vegas Strip arena petition criticized before state Supreme Court

By Cy Ryan

Tuesday, March 6, 2012 | 3:38 p.m.

An attorney, hired to oppose construction of an 18,000-seat sports-entertainment arena on the Las Vegas Strip, says Nevada voters should not be allowed to vote on it.

Scott Scherer, a lawyer for the group Taxpayers for the Protection of Nevada Jobs, told the Nevada Supreme Court Tuesday that the initiative petition to impose a 0.9 percent increase in sales-and-use tax in the Strip area is defective and should be disqualified.

But Jason Woodbury, attorney for the arena committee, said there is a strong public policy to let the voters decide this issue. He argued the petition has met all of its legal tests.

The initiative petition, which had more than 157,000 signatures of voters, was presented to the 2011 Legislature, which declined to act. Instead the Legislature drafted a competing measure that would stop the formulation of a taxing district on the Strip to pay for the stadium-entertainment complex.

Both measures will go on the 2012 election ballot and the one with the most votes will win.

Caesars Entertainment has agreed to donate the land behind its Imperial Palace resort for the site. Supporters of the complex hired a firm to gain enough signatures on an initiative petition to put the issue on the ballot.

The petition says the arena must be in a county with a population of 800,000 or more; the arena must have at least 18,000 seats for a professional basketball or hockey team and at least 95,000 hotel-motel rooms must be within two miles of the site.

It would create a Gaming Enterprise District in which the tax would be collected.

The competing bill, passed by the Legislature with only three dissenting votes, would require that an increase in sales-and-use tax could only be imposed in a full county and it would invalidate any gaming enterprise district for taxes.

Scherer said the initiative petition does not outline the effects of the arena. It says nothing about eliminating competing arenas. And it takes away the power of the Clark County Commission, he argued.

The County Commission also heard proposals for an arena in downtown Las Vegas, at the old Wet 'n Wild water park near Sahara Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard and at a location south of the Strip near the South Point.

The commission did not take any action.

Justice James Hardesty questioned whether this initiative petition violates the constitution in that all taxation must be equal. Woodbury said this is less than a 1 cent increase in the sales tax in a single county and it must be approved in an election of all Nevada residents.

Senior Deputy Attorney General Kevin Bacon said the opponents of the arena have the burden of proving there were enough invalid signatures to keep the issue off the ballot.

Bacon, representing the secretary of state's office, said the opponents have failed to meet that burden of proof.

The opponents to the arena said in their briefs filed with the court that the circulators of the initiative petition were paid $5 for each signature gathered, regardless of the means used.

The brief said the "petition circulators used fraudulent means to obtain signatures, including providing false and misleading information about the location of the arena and the initiative's benefits and detriments to induce people to sign petitions."

The court took the arguments under submission.

Officials also said the rival plan approved by the Legislature is in the courts also.