If Clark County cracked down on businesses offering payouts to limousine and taxi drivers, funding enforcement would cost $650,000 a year.

That would pay for six additional agents, who could monitor about 10 percent of the county's 40,000 licensed businesses.

When County Business License Director Jacqueline Holloway tossed around those figures Tuesday, Clark County commissioners made their position clear on the existing ordinance prohibiting businesses from tipping cabbies.

"I'm not sure if it ever made sense," Commissioner Rory Reid said. "It certainly doesn't make sense now to spend our limited resources to chase this all around town."

The debate arose from an ongoing feud between strip club owners and cabdrivers. But Holloway pointed out that it's not just topless club operators shelling out cash for cabbies to deliver passengers.

In a recent edition of the transportation industry publication Trip Sheet Magazine, attorneys offered free traffic ticket representation to cabdrivers, restaurants offered free coffee, clubs offered free admission and massage parlors promised cash for customers.

"There is an absolute proliferation of all types of businesses," Holloway said. "It's very clear it is a very broad situation."

The board was presented with three options on Tuesday: move to repeal the ordinance; amend it to include all types of commercial drivers; or keep the existing law on the books.

Commissioners agreed that the issue is one that can be sorted out by the free market. If businesses want to pay the drivers, the government shouldn't interfere.

Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald told colleagues it would be a waste of taxpayer dollars to "create an enforcement arm of business licensing. I'd rather see millions of dollars go into recreation facilities."

The $650,000 a year would allow the county to hire six additional business license investigators. Its three agents currently try to regulate the 40,000 businesses in the county, officials said.

There is no way nine agents could effectively enforce the existing ordinance or a proposed amendment to extend it to limousine and shuttle drivers, Reid said. Board members agreed the 20-year-old law is antiquated and essentially useless.

"Why would we use our limited resources to give you six additional agents to not do something well?" Reid asked Holloway.

Holloway is expected to present a proposal to repeal the ordinance to the Clark County Liquor and Gaming Board on Jan. 24. The board, made up of commissioners, regulates businesses with privilege licenses. Commissioners will then hold a public hearing.

The county can only regulate businesses. It is within the Nevada Taxi Cab Authority's powers to penalize drivers who accept the tips.

Board members were troubled by the complexity and cost of enforcement since so many businesses are offering tips.

"I don't think we, as the county, can regulate this," Boggs McDonald said. "If we do go down this path, where do we draw the line?"

The ordinance was originally passed in 1985, after restaurant owners complained that payouts to cabdrivers delivering customers were skyrocketing.

After it passed, the dispute quieted. But in recent years, it has been strip club owners complaining about paying as much as $70 per passenger dropped off at their businesses.

Earlier this month, strip club owners entered a pact to pay drivers anymore. Some cabbies said this week that some clubs have already broken the pact and started offering payouts again.