Columnist Jeff German: No more first-class traveling for LVCVA execs

TOUGH FISCAL TIMES have befallen the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, the taxpayer-funded agency that promotes this city throughout the world.

Rossi Ralenkotter, vice president of marketing, has issued a memo banning the longstanding practice that allows executives to fly first class and business class around the globe.

From now on, according to the memo, all execs must fly coach like everyone else.

The reason?

According to Ralenkotter, there's a $4 million shortfall in room tax collections this fiscal year.

About 80 percent of the LVCVA's $120 million annual budget is funded by the room tax, which is paid by tourists.

LVCVA Public Relations Director Rob Powers says the shortfall is a result of a 3.1 percent drop in visitor volume the first three months of 1998.

Higher airline ticket prices and bad weather in Southern California all have hit tourism here hard, Powers says.

LVCVA officials are working overtime to attract more visitors to Las Vegas.

But in the meantime, Ralenkotter says in his memo, the decrease in room tax revenues is forcing the agency to take "some serious cost-cutting measures."

Ralenkotter says in an interview that the LVCVA is cutting $5.3 million from its current budget to make up for the lost revenue.

The first-class ban applies to Ralenkotter and his boss, LVCVA President Manny Cortez and Tom Smith, the embattled vice president of facilities, which has widespread morale problems.

For years, the LVCVA has allowed its executives to upgrade to first or business class on international flights and all trips east of Chicago and Dallas.

The idea has been to make it easier on sales executives in particular, many of whom log several hundred thousand miles a year promoting the city.

"When you live in an airplane, a first-class or business-class seat can greatly reduce the fatigue of flying all the time," Powers says.

But for now, the sales execs are going to have to handle the stress.

If it's any consolation, Ralenkotter says in his memo, traveling will be even more of a hardship for independent LVCVA contractors -- people like Las Vegas showgirls and Elvis impersonators flown to all parts of the world to hype Las Vegas.

Elvis and company will have to find a seat in the back of the plane at, in Ralenkotter's words, the "lowest available coach" seats.

Life is tough, isn't?

Anti-gaming forces are looking for divine intervention to help them make their case at this week's National Gambling Impact Study Commission meeting in Chicago.

The Illinois Family Institute, affiliated with the Focus on the Family organization run by anti-gaming guru James Dobson, is putting together a prayer service before the meeting Wednesday.

On its web site, the Illinois institute asks its members and supporters to pray throughout the two-day meeting to "bring to light the harmful effects of gambling and the damage it has caused to families."

No word on whether Frank Fahrenkopf and the American Gaming Association will ask for equal time.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has more to smile about than the 11th-hour gubernatorial bid of Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones.

Should she make it out of the Democratic primary, the mayor's candidacy will bring more Democrats to the polls in November, especially women.

That will help Reid, who's locked in a tough race with Rep. John Ensign, R-Nev.

So far, however, Ensign doesn't seem to be giving Reid a run for his money.

The senior senator's latest poll shows him 24 points ahead of Ensign in a head-to-head race.

That's up as many as eight points from a previous survey late last year.

But again, it's early in the race. Both men still have a lot of money to spend before November.

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