The Las Vegas City Council is desperate to build the Big League Dreams sports complex at Freedom Park. But there simply isn't enough money in the city's general fund to pay for it.
The most recent cost estimate from city staff pegged the construction bill at about $36 million, more than enough money to re-stripe scores of roads around town and create additional travel lanes for weary commuters.
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Instead, council members want 30 acres of Freedom Park converted into ball fields that replicate historic major-league stadiums. The complex will then be handed over to a private company, which will charge admission to all who wish to play there. Councilman Gary Reese believes people from all over town and the Southwest United States will travel to the corner of Washington Avenue and Pecos Road to use the sports complex, and that it will spur new investment in a depressed part of the city.
The project isn't being built to meet constituent demand -- people who live near Freedom Park aren't clamoring for the complex and won't be able to afford its fees. Rather, it's a redevelopment project that offers no immediate revenue for the city and no guarantee that it will repay its construction costs.
Unable to pay as they go but itching to move forward, council members have found a solution to their budget problem: go into debt.
On Wednesday, the council moved forward with a plan to sell bonds to pay for Big League Dreams and a public women's softball complex in northwest Las Vegas, as well as infrastructure for vacant city land west of downtown and a refinancing of the debt on the City Hall parking garage. In total, taxpayers will owe $102 million on those bonds, plus interest. It's a substantial liability -- one that should be subject to voter approval.
But council members know Las Vegas voters would never support such a bond measure. Voters expect bond issues to address citywide needs, not neighborhood luxury projects.
The decision to lump the park plans into the bond sale is an intentional circumvention of constituents and a consequence of the city's poor fiscal priorities.
Here's an idea for the City Council: Why doesn't it try to fund its Big League Dreams project with revenue bonds? Let's see how many investors are willing to buy into the council's predictions for the project.
