Facing declining revenue, a $150 million shortfall over the next five years and an inability to sell municipal bonds, city leaders were in a quandary last year over how to pay for their favorite downtown redevelopment projects.
The Nevada Tourism Commission today approved a resolution in support of a sales tax that backs bonds to develop downtown Las Vegas' mob museum. The resolution next goes to Gov. Jim Gibbons for final approval.
The Clark County School Board, tired of cutting school budgets to make up for lost revenue, voiced its reservations about a tourism improvement district the city of Las Vegas is proposing for a 4.5-acre parcel where Mayor Oscar Goodman wants to see a mob museum.
In the shadow of a recession and a nationwide credit crunch, the City of Las Vegas today sold $85 million in redevelopment bonds to fund downtown development projects officials hope will spur the local economy. The Las Vegas City Council unanimously voted today to sell the bonds to institutional investors.
The so-called Mob Museum in downtown Las Vegas is going to receive a $300,000 grant toward restoration from the state Commission on Cultural Affairs. The museum in the old Las Vegas Post Office received the largest grant from the commission, which approved money for 28 projects. The Mob Museum originally asked for $900,000 but then pared back the request to $500,000.
We’re as fascinated by our mayor as the rest of the free world, but we really feel the need to call him on his latest comment on the arts, specifically that he doesn’t see an art museum as necessary for Downtown. Really, Oscar?
Las Vegas’ proposed mob museum has taken some hits of its own in recent weeks, targeted on late-night talk shows and Capitol Hill as an absurd showcase for the likes of Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, Meyer Lansky and Anthony “Tony the Ant” Spilotro. Museum backers say the critics don’t get it. This won’t be some sideshow exhibit celebrating the mob’s role as a storied part of Las Vegas’ past. Rather, it will offer a serious examination of organized crime and law enforcement’s efforts to combat it.
Turn on “This Week with George Stephanopolous” or visit the National Press Club in Washington, and there’s Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky again questioning the use of potential stimulus dollars for “things like mob museums and water slides.”
As debate over the size and scope of a federal stimulus bill intensifies in Washington, regional leaders could soon be engaged in a turf war for their piece of the pie.
One of Mayor Oscar Goodman’s favorite downtown development projects, the mob museum, riled up a few Republican U.S. senators last week after they learned that the mayor had requested federal funds for the project.
Las Vegas’ proposed mob museum is a subject ripe for ridicule, and the Republicans here have held it up as just that. “We would like, on the spending side, obviously, to avoid funding things like a mob museums or water slides,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate.
Henderson wants a museum and the city is in the middle of a nearly $200,000 study to determine its content, location and funding. City officials say they want a nationally recognized institution that will cater mostly to residents.