Thursday, June 12, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Editor's Note: Fun with numbers

I'll admit it. That math test that some area high school seniors were having such trouble with undoubtedly would give me fits as well. Never had much success with the more complex mathematical concepts.

Nevertheless, numbers are the focus of this week's column. Can't avoid 'em. Almost all the big issues these days seem to revolve around numbers--especially those of a monetary nature.

$250,000: This is the relative pittance proposed for inclusion in the state budget to fund problem gambling treatment programs in Nevada. The Legislature, however, did not approve the allocation--again. And so the world's gambling mecca continues to be the only state that does not help pay for the treatment of compulsive gamblers--a galling abdication of responsibility.

$8 million: This is the sum that Simon & Schuster is paying Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for her memoir, Living History. From what I've heard, this may well be a decent book, but $8 million? Half of that amount could fund the publication of untold serious literary works for a decade.

$51.6 million: This is the amount that Las Vegas and unincorporated Clark County voters overwhelmingly refused to pay to build new libraries. The bond question on last week's ballot would have cost the average homeowner about $1 per month, but apparently that was too much for 62 percent of residents casting ballots.

There's no question the library ballot measure came at a bad time. With the Legislature debating the largest package of tax increases in state history, voters may have seen the library bond as frivolous. Still, the rejection of the bond deals a blow to cultural growth in the valley and leaves thousands of residents in fast-growing areas underserved--now and in the future. It's unlikely that any area library district will propose a bond issue in the next few years, which means it could be six, seven, even 10 years before there's a new branch in Las Vegas.

$170 million: This is the figure a local foundation says it needs to raise to build and operate a performing arts center in downtown Las Vegas. The group says it will try to get much of the funding from private sources but some of it will have to come from some kind of tax initiative, perhaps a room tax increase.

Much like libraries, a performing arts center would be a tremendous addition to the valley and to downtown. But in light of the public's hostile reaction to the library bond, one has to be worried, if not skeptical, about the project's viability in the short term.

$232.2 million: This is the total that bidders spent during last week's Bureau of Land Management auction of federal property. Over a two-hour period Thursday, developers purchased 995 acres in the Las Vegas area at an average cost of $226,000 per acre. The biggest spender was Focus Property Group, which paid $113.5 million for 485 acres near U.S. 95 and Kyle Canyon Road that the company intends to turn into a planned community. Olympia Group spent $62.6 million for a 248-acre parcel west of Interstate 15 along Blue Diamond Road.

The good news is the proceeds of these sales will be used to buy and protect environmentally sensitive acreage and to improve recreational facilities on public lands in Nevada. One possibility for this new money is to buy developer Jim Rhodes' mining property on Blue Diamond Hill overlooking Red Rock Canyon, clean it up and make it part of the national conservation area.

The bad news is the BLM's land sales accelerate urban sprawl, increase air pollution, worsen traffic congestion, heighten the water crisis, crowd schools and strain government services. Protecting sensitive lands and building recreational facilities are good things to do, but they don't come close to offsetting the ill effects of Las Vegas' unrelenting growth. A moratorium on the twice-yearly auctions seems wholly called for at this point, but don't count on it. The BLM clearly relishes its new role as supreme arbiter of local growth.

And so it forges ahead: The next BLM auction, during which another 2,500 acres will be up for grabs, is slated for Nov. 6.

$860 million: This is roughly the size of the tax increase needed to balance the Legislature-approved two-year state budget of $4.9 billion. The budget can't be implemented until lawmakers pass tax increases to raise enough revenue to pay for it. But the Legislature, as of Tuesday, had been unable to secure a two-thirds majority in favor of a tax package. Recalcitrant Republicans have refused to approve such a big increase, despite the fact that the state party leader, Gov. Kenny Guinn, is a strong advocate of the tax hikes. They, predictably, want a Dittohead solution: cut welfare and Medicaid instead. The stalemate threatens to shut down state government.

How did we get into this dismal situation? Well, of course, blame must go to the people of Nevada, who approved a state initiative in the 1990s requiring a two-thirds majority to increase a tax. Thus, we have a tyranny of the minority. A rascally pack of GOP diehards controls the fate of the schools attended by your kids and mine, and it doesn't give a rat's ass whether students have art and music classes or whether there are buses to deliver kids to magnet schools.

Look for this little drama to end badly.

--GEOFF SCHUMACHER