Senate OKs lower ‘green’ tax breaks

CARSON CITY -- It wasn't a win for Wynn on Friday, with the Senate passing 20-1 a bill restricting generous tax breaks for companies building environmentally friendly projects.

The bill goes back to the Assembly, where changes made by the Senate will have to be reconciled before the measure can go to the governor for his possible signature.

Assembly Bill 621 passed with a Thursday amendment intact, despite an e-mail sent to senators on Friday from Matt Maddox of Wynn Resorts objecting to the measure.

"The new amendment to AB621 will have a serious adverse pact on the Encore project for Wynn Resorts," Maddox said.

The imposition of a Feb. 1, 2007, deadline for projects to qualify for the original sales tax breaks included in legislation passed in 2005, "will exclude Wynn and cause us to lose millions of dollars and abandon many of the energy saving initiatives," he said.

An analysis of the Wynn project suggests that if the company qualified, it would collect about $30 million in sales tax breaks.

Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, acknowledged the Wynn project would not meet the deadline in the bill as amended by the Senate and so would not qualify for the sales tax exemption under the 2005 legislation.

The new measure eliminates the sales tax exemption for all but six projects, identified by Townsend as the CityCenter project being built by MGM/Mirage; Fontainebleau; the Venetian's Lido/Palazzo Resort projects; the Molasky Corporate Center; the Echelon Place project by Boyd Gaming; and the Panorama Towers project. All are in Las Vegas.

Lawmakers sought to revise the 2005 bill after learning that it would result in more than $900 million in sales and property tax breaks, reducing funding for local government and public schools.