LVCVA cuts ad spending, continues talks with union

By Richard N. Velotta

Thursday, May 20, 2010 | 12:52 p.m.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority today approved a $211 million budget for the 2010-11 fiscal year that includes an 18.1 percent decrease in the amount of money spent for advertising.

Board members unanimously approved the financial plan knowing that negotiations are ongoing with the Service Employees International Union Local 1107 on a contract that includes a 4 percent pay increase for union-represented employees.

LVCVA officials said that unless the union agrees to concessions that would eliminate raises, the organization that markets the Las Vegas destination would be faced with laying off 53 non-union employees. The union and LVCVA collective bargaining teams are scheduled to meet again Monday.

The $211 million budget includes a $170.1 million operations budget that includes $71.8 million for advertising and $27.3 million for marketing the Las Vegas destination.

The fiscal 2011 budget marks the third straight year that the organization is anticipating revenue significantly below pre-recession levels. The LVCVA is, however, projecting a 1.3 percent increase in revenue over the previous year because the triennial ConExpo-Con/Agg, a major construction equipment trade show, will be staged at the Las Vegas Convention Center in March 2011.

Room tax and gaming fee revenue is expected to remain flat at $151.9 million from last year.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who chairs the LVCVA board of directors, chided representatives of the union for not accepting the concessions sought by LVCVA negotiators.

Noting that he presided over the city’s budget and “had to use the same elevator with more than 200 people who were about to be laid off,” Goodman said it was incomprehensible to him that union workers would stand by and watch their colleagues lose their jobs.

“It was the most heart-wrenching thing I’ve ever been through,” Goodman said of the City Hall budget experience this year.

Addressing SEIU workers in the crowd, he said “I don’t believe you guys are those kind of guys” that would accept a pay increase while others are laid off.

SEIU representatives suggested that funds be transferred from a construction contingency account to avoid layoffs.

There currently are 572 LVCVA positions, 86 of them unfunded. The organization is in the midst of a hiring freeze and non-union employees have received no bonuses or raises.

The LVCVA’s advertising budget will include expenditures for the new “Camp Vegas” leisure market campaign, the “What happens here, stays here” Las Vegas branding campaign, the “C-Suite” campaign targeting corporate executives for business travel, meetings and conventions and international ads to entice tourists from Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

The budget also allocates $8.4 million – a 9 percent increase from last year – for special-events funding to Las Vegas Events.

Over the years, the LVCVA has sponsored and promoted special events through grants and sponsorships, providing seed money for events with the expectation that most of them become independent of LVCVA funding.