Las Vegas district sees water sales falling again

For the third year in a row, the Las Vegas Valley Water District expects to add fewer than a thousand new customers and sell less water than it did the previous year, according to a new budget approved on Monday.

The valley's largest water utility plans to spend $327.8 million during the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. That's a decrease of $9 million from the current budget.

The Clark County Commission, which serves as the district's board of directors, signed off on the spending plan after an hour-long hearing.

The budget is based on a 1.1 percent decline in water sales and a less-than-1 percent increase in new service connections.

The 970 customers the district expects to add in the coming year would mark its largest gain since 2008, but it still represents a tiny fraction of the growth seen during the first half of the past decade.

The utility added more than 12,000 new customers in 2000, and that number rose steadily through 2005, when it peaked at 24,078.

Then the housing market collapsed, and new home construction all but stopped across the Las Vegas Valley, sending applications for new service plummeting to 280 in 2009.

The impact on revenue continues to be felt, particularly in the area of capital projects, where $403 million in construction has been cut or deferred.

No layoffs are expected this year, but the district will maintain 2009 budget cuts that froze or eliminated the jobs of 338 full-time, part-time and contract employees.

The utility has roughly 1,500 full-time workers. No new positions would be created under the new budget.

The district does plan to spend $6.4 million in the coming year to operate the museum and cultural attraction known as the Springs Preserve.

That's the same amount the district is on pace to spend this year on operations at the preserve.

Since the district opened the attraction in June 2007, the 180-acre collection of interactive exhibits, green buildings and desert plants on Valley View south of U.S. Highway 95 has absorbed more $30 million in subsidies.

On top of that, the utility will spend the next 25 to 30 years paying back the roughly $160 million it borrowed for construction of the $235 million facility.

District spokesman J.C. Davis said the budget for next year is similar to the current one.

He said the district is still taking the same conservative approach it has maintained "since the economy started to turn."

The utility delivers drinking water to more than 350,000 residential and commercial customers in Las Vegas and the unincorporated parts of the valley.

It buys its water wholesale from the Southern Nevada Water Authority, the regional entity with which the district shares some administrators and other staff.

The water authority board will vote on its budget for the coming year on Thursday.

Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.