Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

State of the City:

With a more upbeat outlook, NLV mayor touts ‘strong plan to repair our city’

NLV State of the City Address 2014

Steve Marcus

North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee prepares to deliver the State of the City address Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014, at Aliante.

A year ago, Mayor John Lee delivered his first State of the City address as North Las Vegas teetered on the brink of financial disaster, faced with a long-term deficit of $152 million.

On Tuesday, Lee made his second-annual State of the City speech with North Las Vegas facing a much different outlook.

Thanks to deals struck with unions last April, the city's projected budget deficit over the next seven years has been slashed nearly in half, from $152 million to $78 million. Vacant space at the newly built City Hall has been leased and key executive positions have been filled.

"We have put together a strong plan to repair our city and we're executing on it," Lee said during the nearly hourlong speech to a gathered crowd at Texas Station. "North Las Vegas will be a story of optimism written with achievement and hard work."

After guiding the city as it avoided financial insolvency, Lee is turning his attention to major projects that can help revitalize the city's economy. Leading the way is a plan to create a tax-free zone on 700 acres at the Apex Industrial Park to lure a few major businesses to the site. By doing so, the city hopes to pull together funding to finish water and electricity hookups needed to open the remaining 6,000 acres of the park for development. Doing so could create thousands of jobs, unlock billions of dollars in economic development and millions of dollars in tax revenues each year.

Lee also promoted plans to bring a UNLV medical campus to a plot of recently acquired city-owned land near the VA Hospital and the recent progress of the long-stalled Park Highlands community, a 2,600-acre, 15,000-home development.

Still, Lee urged caution with the city's recovery so far, saying it will still be years before its financial woes are cured.

"North Las Vegas is not out of the hole. We're continuing to work just as hard as we did last year," he said. "We put a seven-year forecast together, I'll need all seven years to really make North Las Vegas stand on its own."

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