Sunday, May 20, 2007 | 6:57 a.m.
CARSON CITY - Every session is about green. But some are greener than others.
As the great scramble for money begins in the Legislature's final fortnight, lawmakers are grappling with the potential loss of $1.4 billion in green over the next decade and a half because of their unanimous desire two years ago to go green.
In so doing, legislators have perfectly captured the duality of what occurs here every other year - the beneficent desires of the many being altered or even subverted by the avarice of the few, the intention to do good hampered or even thwarted by too little time and too many external forces.
The magnitude of the issue of who gets the green building tax breaks and who doesn't was on display Friday in a packed committee room as all the major lobbyists and special interests were represented, and key lawyers and executives from Southern Nevada had flown up to try to influence the outcome.
Such a scene to see the phalanxes of gaming company representatives intently listening to see if they could keep tax breaks worth tens of millions of dollars not far from a handful of schools and teacher union lobbyists who know that the casinos' gain was their loss because of the money subtracted from the state budget.
The context here was inescapable.
The schools' advocates, who each session at this time are fighting for what amounts to pennies, have been confronted with the possibility of losing fantastic amounts of money in the next 15 years because of the run on tax breaks that were granted by regulators not doing much regulating. Instead of having their pot of money dramatically increased, which most folks in this state would support, they were confronted with the possibility of Nevada actually doing worse (if that is possible) in how it funds its schools.
My guess, too, is that some of the gaming companies represented there Friday somehow missed the irony of their desire to ensure they can erect billion-dollar projects with tens of millions of dollars in tax breaks while lawmakers struggle to find money to fund education, roads and other infrastructure needs. Once again, this shows the struggle to find balance between what these enterprises pump into the economy, and thus into government coffers, and whether they too often ask for too much in return.
And what is too much to induce corporations to spend more money to build environmentally friendly buildings? There certainly has to be something above the bar set by the roundheels at the city of Las Vegas for redevelopment and the regulatory vacuum the state created on this green building tax break nightmare.
Suddenly, these Rip Van Winkles have arisen to find we need new roads and better schools. What's next? In 2009 they will awake to find yet another growth-related problem and desperately find a way to make you think they have addressed it?
The green building tax break has provided a perfect illustration of all this. Lawmakers didn't completely think through the implications two years ago. Lobbyists during the session and then afterward managed to turn the law to their clients' advantage. The rush to be green became apparent during the rush to find money this year, which caused a legislative panic, another bill, a gubernatorial veto and executive order, and then the inevitable specter of lawsuits from the companies that felt they were entitled to their tax breaks.
So now lawmakers are trying to tear down the regulatory structure - some of which was never erected - and create a new apparatus with more certainty. The legal eagles up here are researching what the state's liability might be if they try to rescind tax breaks the companies believe were granted. And the major players - from MGM Mirage to Boyd Gaming to Las Vegas Sands to Irwin Molasky to Howard Hughes Properties - are wondering how do they profit from going green if the Legislature closes the loopholes.
On Friday lawmakers pointed fingers at the regulators and then presented a solution with stricter regulations and one that would protect schools from any funding shortfalls.
But, this, too is emblematic of the Newtonian world of government: Every action has an equal and opposite reaction - in this case, schools are held harmless from a property tax loss but local governments are not.
This is another inexorable reality of how government works here session after session: If we have a problem, let's make it someone else's.
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