EDITORIAL: Council deception nets soccer stadium

As bad as the downtown soccer stadium deal is — and, oh, is it plenty bad — the way in which the city government and the Las Vegas City Council got it done is even worse.

Mix blatant dishonesty and deception with a hearty helping of cynicism and you get one enormous taxpayer giveaway the voting public would never support.

On Dec. 17, when constituents were too busy preparing for the holidays to sit through a public meeting, the council voted 4-3 to subsidize a 24,000-seat soccer stadium and surrounding development in Symphony Park. The public’s share of the project, which is contingent upon The Cordish Cos. and Findlay Sports &Entertainment securing a Major League Soccer franchise, includes handing over about $40 million worth of land; funding $31.5 million worth of infrastructure; building a multimillion-dollar, 1,200-space parking garage and giving the developers event-day parking revenues; and $25 million from a $50 million park bond toward stadium construction. Including bond interest, the public contribution to stadium construction will total about $45 million.

The total subsidy is especially staggering because the cash-strapped city was supposed to provide no subsidy at all.

The entire deal was essentially dead on Oct. 1, when four council members — Bob Beers, Bob Coffin, Stavros Anthony and Lois Tarkanian — opposed a proposal that guaranteed about $60 million upfront to the developers, whose negotiating window was due to expire. But the council’s project supporters — Mayor Carolyn Goodman and Councilmen Ricki Barlow and Steve Ross — persuaded Mrs. Tarkanian, Mr. Beers and Mr. Coffin to extend negotiations with Cordish/Findlay through the end of the year on the promise that staff would work to eliminate the public subsidies. That goal was consistent with the wishes of taxpayers who attended public meetings on the project. The council voted 6-1 to continue negotiations. Mrs. Tarkanian and Mr. Beers sided with the majority with the understanding that subsidies were off the table.

Mrs. Goodman, Mr. Barlow and Mr. Ross had bought themselves time. But they didn’t try to eliminate the subsidy. Instead, they used that time to buy Mr. Coffin’s vote. The park bond will fund projects on the east side of town — projects Mr. Coffin has long sought for his ward. His price was met.

On Dec. 17, Mayor Goodman explained that the Oct. 1 motion only directed staff to “work toward” eliminating the subsidy, not achieve a subsidy-free term sheet. The result? Just $3.5 million in upfront money was shaved off the previous proposal.

“Everybody focused on the ‘eliminating’ of public dollars and didn’t consider the ‘work toward’ part,” Mr. Beers explained.

This word game is a breach of public trust. Mayor Goodman, Mr. Barlow, Mr. Ross and Mr. Coffin have sacrificed their integrity in the name of redevelopment. Of course, they engaged in such bad faith precisely because the public doesn’t support the subsidy. In fact, taxpayers can’t be sure how much they’re paying. They were shut out of talks.

So the public would be perfectly justified in petitioning to put the plan on this spring’s municipal ballot. If the council is going to slap voters in the face, then voters should slap back.