LV chamber ready to fight for tax hikes

Businesses considering relocating to or expanding in Las Vegas frequently worry about infrastructure and schools.

That's why the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce will be actively campaigning on two ballot questions to be put before voters in November -- one to maintain a property tax increase for schools and another that would hike the sales tax to help pay for water works improvements.

"That's first and foremost on the minds of businesses looking to come here or expand here," Chamber President Pat Shalmy said following a Friday address to the International Association of Business Communicators. "The first thing they ask is about infrastructure and how is the school system."

The ballot regarding schools would freeze property tax rates to pay off bonds used to raise money for school construction. State law allows the school district, with voter approval, to freeze the tax rate. Previously, the rate would decrease as bonds were paid off. The ballot would freeze the rate for 10 years as the district launches construction of 88 new schools. The freeze is expected to yield about $2.5 billion for school construction.

Voters approved a $605 million bond package in 1994 and a $643 million package in 1996. November's ballot question would allow the construction plan to continue without seeking approval every two years from voters to issue bonds.

Shalmy noted it is not a new tax, and that it is needed. "We have to have better facilities to put our children in," he said.

The chamber will also support a one-quarter cent per dollar hike in the sales tax to raise funds for a new water system.

"I think it's imperative we do that," Shalmy said. "The question is, 'Do we have tourists help pay for it or do we pay it ourselves?"'

Besides serving as chamber president, Shalmy is serving on another body that will affect business in the Valley -- the Southern Nevada Strategic Planning Authority. That body will report to the 1999 General Assembly on planning and development in the Las Vegas area.

Shalmy expects the much-debated "ring around the valley" to come up in discussions both with the authority and in the Legislature. The ring was proposed during the last legislative session as a growth boundary.

"I urge you to get educated on that issue," he said.

He said land owned by the Bureau of Land Management is both a blessing and a curse. It makes it hard for business to obtain property in a timely fashion, but can be beneficial for planning orderly growth in the future.

"I think public lands are going to play a very big role in how we grow," Shalmy said.

Shalmy also addressed the much-discussed monorail project on the Strip. He said the chamber had no position on it, but he believed it would be supportive of such a project.

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