… or words to that effect. Nevada Resort Association President (and respected former casino regulator) Bill Bible has just administered a smackdown to Carson City’s favorite punching bag, increasingly ineffectual Gov. "Midnight Jim" Gibbons. Now that Gibber the Fibber is making a grab for hotel room-tax $$ to fund highway projects, the well-respected Mr. Bible has released a few thoughts on the subject.
Specifially, Midnight Jim would like to lay his mitts upon $424 million in room tax lucre per year, for eight years, plus $360 million in live-entertainment and vehicle-sales tax dough, which is projected to net $2.5 billion for road work. (Well over $3 billion is the projected amount required … but never mind those pesky details. What’s a few hundred million between friends?) Bible responds thusly:
I have received the Governor’s transportation plan which proposes to reallocate three existing revenue streams from the manner in which they are currently utilized. Two of those streams—the live entertainment tax and the vehicle sales tax—have not been reviewed by the Associations’ members so I cannot articulate an Association position.
As a former budget director for the state, I am concerned about the impact this plan would have on future budget decisions.
As far as the room tax proposal, I will restate what I and my members, who own and operate the vast majority of rooms in southern Nevada, have expressed to Governor Gibbons in recent conversations.
We are resolutely opposed to raising or reallocating room taxes to pay for transportation improvements in Clark County as proposed by the Governor today. We recognize that these needs must be addressed, but this is not the kind of broad-based approach necessary to correct the problem.
The LVCVA is one of the most successful private-public organizations in the nation and its promotional activities have substantially contributed to the economic development of southern Nevada. With a large number of rooms coming on line the future, we strongly feel that future room tax money should not be diverted and instead used to promote Las Vegas as an international destination and to keep Las Vegas competitive and our economy healthy.
If Midnight Jim’s plan succeeds, it will depend on the amount of support he gets from the most powerful man in Nevada, state senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, who usually treats Gibbons like the irrelevance that he has become (a 28% approval rating will do that). Raggio was conspicuous by his absence from Midnight Jim’s media event, which doesn’t bode well for Gibbons.
Uber-pundit Jon Ralston detects the not-so-fine hand of Sheldon Adelson behind Midnight Jim’s rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul ploy, while City Life Editor Steve Sebelius excoriates its short-sightedness. Considering some of the Larry Lightbulb schemes that have characterized Gibber the Fibber’s administration (selling water rights beneath highways; coal liquification, etc.), this latest proposal is as suspect as its veracity-challenged author.
