Lawmaker pitches alternative plan for public stadium

By Cy Ryan

Monday, Sept. 19, 2016 | 2:47 p.m.

CARSON CITY — State Sen. Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, is pitching an alternative plan to build a 65,000-seat stadium in Las Vegas that would be publicly owned and paid for by a 4 percent hike in the hotel room tax in Clark County.

The current tax is 12 percent.

Last week, the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee recommended a proposal for a stadium to bring the Oakland Raiders to Las Vegas that would include $750 million in public money, $650 million from private developers $500 million from the team.

The public portion of the committee-backed plan, which would need to be approved by state lawmakers, would be funded by a room tax hike of 0.88 percent in the main gaming corridor and 0.5 percent in the outlying areas of the county. It would not include any public profit sharing.

“This is something to think about,” said Segerblom, whose plan would have the football team pay rent to play at the public stadium.

He requested on Friday that a bill be drafted for lawmakers to consider during the regular legislative session that begins in February.

Stadium backers say time is of the essence and are pushing for a special session of the Legislature to approve the plan, so it can be presented to the NFL, which would have to OK the move.