Thursday, February 20, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Quick and Dirty: A notebook of news and politics

The goose is safe

Well, the people of Nevada have spoken--again--and they are saying the same thing they've said several times before: Raise the gaming tax. A Review-Journal-sponsored poll released last Thursday showed strong opposition to Gov. Kenny Guinn's $1.1 billion tax proposal to balance the state budget. Voters across the state would prefer that Guinn cut state spending rather than raise the business license tax, increase property taxes or impose an amusement tax.

However, voters showed considerable support for the proposed quarter-percent gross receipts tax on big business (58 percent in favor). They were even more supportive of an idea that's not on the table in Carson City: raising the gaming tax. In a result that is consistent with previous polls over the past decade, 67 percent of voters support raising the gaming tax to pay for statewide services.

So, will the Nevada Legislature heed the voters' wisdom? Get real. The odds are very, very long that the gaming tax will increase in any significant way this year, or any year, for that matter. Because, let's face it, voters aren't very engaged. They'll anonymously support a gaming tax increase if some pollster calls after dinner, but they don't try to actually do anything about it. Voters are not part of the legislative process in Nevada. That, in a nutshell, is why the gaming lobby reigns supreme in Carson City.--GS

A higher profile

The rejection of state Sen. Joe Neal's racial profiling bill last week in the Legislature should not be construed as the end of the issue in Nevada. The American Civil Liberties Union is continuing to push state lawmakers to build upon a recent study suggesting systemic racial bias in police departments across the state. Gary Peck, director of the Nevada ACLU, is offering model legislation that would increase data collection, improve training and hold officers more accountable. Other states have profiling laws that incorporate pieces of the ACLU model bill. Peck says the ACLU's national office has committed to dedicating resources to the racial profiling issue in Nevada.--GS

KUNV's last 'Dance'

In another blow to KUNV 91.5-FM's original programming, longtime dance music show "Dimensional Dance" threw a quite sudden farewell show Saturday night. The nine-year-old show is the latest casualty as the station continues its march toward "light jazz" programming, which began in May 1995, when popular weekday morning show "Rock Avenue" was canned by then-interim general manager Don Fuller. Since that time, several popular shows have disappeared as volunteer deejays have been pressured by new management to drum up listenership and underwriting for their shows.

"I was told it was canceled due to lack of both those," says host Eric Rebollo, who goes by Big "E." "The thing that gets me is [KUNV] has a salaried person whose job it is to get funding. And yet I don't think she exactly went out of her way to get underwriting from these multimillion-dollar dance clubs." Program director Travis Tharp was out of town and couldn't be reached for comment.

Since the farewell show, Rebollo says he's received more than 100 supportive e-mails, but that's cold comfort. "I feel like the station has been heading this way for a long time," he says. "Dimensional Dance" will be replaced by a satellite jazz feed.--AK

Huntridge shakeup

Mike Stratton, former general manager at the Huntridge Theater, left about a month ago. Was it a conflict of visions? Philosophical differences? When pressed for details, Stratton insists the parting was amicable. He just "wasn't happy. It was just hard for me to find my place in there, so I thought it'd be better if I left. I just don't think I was cut out for the role of GM." He's gone back to waiting tables at P.F. Chang's.--AK

Art success story

While the Guggenheim Las Vegas museum at the Venetian appears to be history--it'll probably become some kind of nightclub or concert venue--the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum, also at the Venetian, is still going strong. The museum announced last week that it is extending its popular Art Through the Ages: Masterpieces of Painting from Titian to Picasso exhibit through May 4. The exhibit, culled from the permanent collections of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria, and the Guggenheim in New York, had been slated to close March 2. "Locals and tourists who have not yet visited the exhibition should embrace this amazing opportunity," says museum spokeswoman Sasha Jackowich. "The extra two months will also allow us to reach additional students in Clark County beyond the 800 who have toured the exhibition already."

The exhibit to follow Art Through the Ages will be a Pop Art retrospective, set to open in late May. The exhibition will feature artists such as Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Jim Dine and Claes Oldenburg.--GS

Spartan's existence

One of Las Vegas' oldest health food stores, Spartan Health Foods at 4515 W. Sahara Ave., is slated to close as early as Saturday after a 31-year run. Owner Jeff Haas, whose cousin Stan Simmons started the store in 1971, says a host of factors contributed to the decision to shut the doors, including increased competition from chains such as Better Nutrition and Health Express, post-9/11 financial woes and what Haas characterizes as mainstream media "vitamin-bashing." "We just weren't making it," Haas says. "It's been an ongoing thing. It didn't happen in a day."

In an era when "health food stores" are often just pill-and-protein powder shops staffed by inarticulate musclemen, Spartan managed to set itself apart. "There are a bunch of pill stores out there," says Haas, "but we had groceries. That and the personal attention and expertise we offered made us unique." If you wanna get healthy on the cheap, this is the time: The store's running a 50 percent off sale until it closes.--AK

Clearing a path

Next week, members of the state Senate will take a bus to Yucca Mountain to see what the ol' Department of Energy's up to out there. Sen. Ray Shaffer, who has introduced a bill (SB119) "imposing certain restrictions on transportation of certain hazardous waste," arranged the tour. "We might as well be educated," Shaffer says. "My position has always been not to put your head in the sand." And he says the bill just reflects his overriding concern about safety.

What he means to say, accuses Peggy Maze Johnson, executive director of Citizen Alert, is let's just sit back and enjoy the ride, Nevada. She says the tour and the bill are "foolish" and "bogus" and just an example of Shaffer's "pandering to the industry."

"It's that whole Bob List mentality," Maze Johnson says. "If you go on a tour, the DOE tells you how wonderful it is. They do their whole `it's safe and risk-free' song and dance. So, [Shaffer] wants to get people in a mode to talk about benefits."

As for the bill, she says Citizen Alert's going to try to kill it. "It's a nothing bill, and it's gonna have fiscal repercussions," she says. "It's giving people a false sense of security. And it says, `We're ready, DOE.'"

The Assembly side, meanwhile, isn't going on the tour because of scheduling conflicts, said a spokeswoman. Shaffer assures, however, that the tour "is a joint effort" between the Senate and Assembly.--HW

Still not Mecca

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority announced last week that Southern Nevada's 2002 visitor numbers posted a scant 0.2 percent increase over 2001. That means nearly 55,000 more tourists came here last year than did in 2001, but that was still nearly 780,000 below 2000 figures.

While 0.2 percent is considered an improvement, it doesn't come close to the record set by world globe-hoppers in 2002. According to the World Tourism Organization, travel across the world was up 3.1 percent, or 21.7 million, causing annual statistics to crash through the 700 million barrier for the first time.--FC

Gov't

Son of a Guinn

It sucks to have friends in high places. Last week, the Las Vegas Planning Commission listened as Coronado Bay/Sahara Limited Liability Co. made a number of requests leading to hoped-for approval of a 55,000-square-foot office complex on West Sahara Avenue.

It was a typical city planning application. But, atypically, one by one a majority of the commissioners disclosed a need to abstain from acting on it. Commissioners Craig Galati, Laura McSwain, vice chairman Stephen Quinn and Todd Nigro apparently all have a business relationship with the LLC's manager, Jeff Guinn--who happens to be president of Aspen Mortgage and the son of Gov. Kenny Guinn. Galati's firm is the architect, McSwain's firm has part of the construction contract, Quinn is the general contractor and Nigro is a client of Guinn's attorney. And so, though Chairman Richard Truesdell and commissioners Steve Evans and Byron Goynes did manage a 3-0 vote, the requests were denied.

"No matter what the motion or the vote, this will go forward to the City Council as a denial because you do not have a super-majority available to you," Planning Director Bob Genzer told them.--FC

A hassle or a bluff?

At last week's Las Vegas Planning Commission meeting, public works officials challenged the placement of a single driveway, fronting on Rainbow Boulevard next to the Northern Beltway, that was part of a U.S. Homes subdivision application. They said someday a Rainbow bridge over the Beltway, between Tenaya Way and Torrey Pines Drive, would interfere with the driveway.

But the north side of the Beltway is in the county, and there is no dedicated Rainbow right of way. Plus, a 100-foot-wide street would bisect Michael and Paula Gaughan's (yep, that's Coast Resorts owner Michael Gaughan) Rocking M Ranch. So, it seems such a bridge is a long, long way off.

In fact, in July 2001, the Gaughans' neighbors, Jeff and Janie Gale--Las Vegas Sun Editor Brian Greenspun's brother-in-law and sister--argued in their right-of-way vacation petition before the County Commission that they're "trying to preserve the rural nature out there [and to] keep major roads from going through there." They won and even got county public works to state: "There will be no north-south public, through access streets between Tenaya Way and Torrey Pines Drive."

So, is the city blowin' smoke or does it have a direct line to the MLS listings?--FC