Tax hike pitched for new water system

Labor and business leaders have pitched a quarter-cent sales tax to help pay $3 billion to expand Southern Nevada's water system, telling voters the community can't continue to grow without it.

Critics have attacked the proposal, saying that poor people will pay the most if voters raise the sales tax in November.

Now Nevadans for Solutions, a coalition between unions and the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, has raised $300,000 for ads to convince voters who will advise county officials how to fund the water system expansion through 2025.

The coalition launched its campaign Wednesday at the Sloan lift station under construction off Stewart Avenue east of Nellis Boulevard. The unit will lift Lake Mead water to the northwest valley, 2,000 feet uphill from the lake.

With a quarter-cent sales tax, tourists will help by paying $800 million, and residents will pay higher water rates and higher prices to hook up new homes. Without raising the sales tax, residents will pay higher water rates and the hook-up fees for new homes could reach $35,000 each, said Pat Shalmy, Chamber CEO and co-chair of Nevadans for Solutions.

"It gives us reliability in the water system, and better quality water," Shalmy said.

But Citizen Alert Executive Director Rick Nielsen said the environmental watchdog group opposes the sales tax increase. "It's a pure and simple subsidy," he said. "It puts the price increases and the burden on existing homeowners who have already paid their dues."

Assemblyman Harry Mortenson, a Las Vegas Democrat, said "simple mathematics" prove that current residents will pay more for growth under higher sales taxes than newcomers. Without a sales tax, hook-up fees pay for 79 percent of the project, he said.

Add the sales tax and new residents pay only 52 percent while those living here will pay about 35 percent with increased water rates and sales tax, Mortenson said.

The Nevada Senior Coalition opposes raising the sales tax, said coalition leader Ken Mahal. "We are more against it than ever," he said, saying the ambitious expansion project threatens residents' pocketbooks and their health.

Mahal said a citizens' panel advising the Southern Nevada Water Authority never considered raising gross gaming fees as a solution. No one suggested adding $1 to each hotel room, something that would raise more than $30 million a year. "There's been no increase in gaming fees in more than 11 years," Mahal said.

A second drinking water intake at the same level as the old one on Saddle Island increases risks that waterborne diseases such a cryptosporidiosis will get into the drinking water as it did in 1994, killing 43 residents, Mahal said.

Coalition co-chair Danny Thompson, political affairs director for the AFL-CIO, said the sales tax is critical so that continued growth will protect jobs for many Southern Nevada workers.

"Your water rates and connection fees will go up dramatically without the sales tax increase," Thompson said.

Southern Nevada Water Authority Board Chairman Mary Kincaid said the extra sales tax will help develop treatment for gray water, so drinking water won't be poured on golf courses.

"It makes sense for tourists to help pay for it as well as residents," she said. And neither the water authority nor the Clark County Commission can raise other taxes, such as gaming or property, she said. That is up to the Legislature.

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