Legislative panel approves ‘green construction’ rules

CARSON CITY -- After months of hassles, new state rules on tax breaks for Nevada businesses that build environmentally friendly buildings quietly won final approval Tuesday from a legislative panel.

There was no debate as the Legislature's Subcommittee to Review Regulations signed off on the rules -- in contrast to drawn-out discussions during and after the 2007 session.

"We've got language that everyone can live with, and that's the reason it was passed today," state Taxation Director Dino DiCianno said after the panel endorsed his agency's rule on the tax deals and a related state Energy Office regulation.

Tuesday's meeting was nothing like its August meeting, when Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, argued that businesses seeking sales and property tax breaks had to adhere to criteria for "green construction" buildings set out in the 2007 Legislature's Assembly Bill 621.

But Senate Commerce and Labor Chairman Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, contended that some companies got opinion letters supporting their building projects from the state Tax Commission before the new law was passed.

Because of their reliance on a 2005 law governing tax breaks for green construction, they should get lower taxes regardless of what was stated in the 2007 law, Townsend said.

In the end, DiCianno said sales tax breaks will go to five companies that sought them after passage of the 2005 law. They include the CityCenter project being built by MGM Mirage, Fontainebleau, The Venetian's Lido-Palazzo projects, the Molasky Corporate Center, and Boyd Gaming's Echelon Place project.

Those projects, all in the Las Vegas area, and any others constructed under the 2007 legislation also are eligible for property tax breaks.