Officials discuss revenue shortfall for road work

Clark County bean counters on Tuesday clashed with regional transportation planners over a tax revenue shortfall that could imperil valley-wide road and freeway projects.

Revenue shortfalls at the Regional Transportation Commission have forced the Clark County public works department to seek a new funding plan for the remaining construction needed to complete the Las Vegas Beltway.

In January, the Transportation Commission told the county that $135 million once projected to help pay for the Beltway was no longer available because of a shortfall in Question 10 revenue, the taxes for road work approved by voters in 1990 and again in 2002.

As a result, county officials have created a 30-year plan to fund the $1.4 billion in remaining Beltway projects, which include new interchanges and bridges throughout the valley.

The plan, which was detailed Tuesday for Clark County commissioners, calls for nearly $900 million in bonds to be floated and eventually paid off at a cost of nearly $2 billion.

But there are risks, including that the costs of the remaining projects could escalate and tax revenue could remain stagnant.

George Stevens, chief financial officer of the county, told commissioners the plan was one of the riskiest he has seen in his time with the county.

For instance, the plan suggests there will be a shortfall between 2012 and 2017 from the motor vehicle privilege tax, which would be used to pay off the bond's debt service, Stevens said.

As a result, Stevens suggested the commission instead consider using $120 million from the special ad valorem capital projects tax. "It would fix the problem," he said.

But that put Stevens at odds with Transportation Commission officials.

That tax, a 5-cent property tax, is supposed to be used for transportation projects under an interlocal agreement with the Transportation Commission. But 3 cents of the 5 cents was in 2007 snatched up by the governor and state Legislature to pay for $1 billion in state transportation projects, leaving local government entities to squabble over the remaining 2 cents.

The original interlocal contract called for 2 cents, or 40 percent, of the 5 cents to go to the Transportation Commission. Stevens suggested that the Transportation Commission is now only entitled to 40 percent of the remaining 2 cents and not the whole amount.

Transportation Commission General Manager Jacob Snow disagreed and read from the interlocal contract stating that the whole 2 cents, which amounts to about $14.5 million this year and nearly $60 million from 2009 to 2012, should go the coffers of the Transportation Commission.

Snow warned that if the money is not forked over funding won't be available for several major projects such as the widening of the Summerlin Parkway, building of the Cactus Road-Interstate 15 interchange and construction of super arterials for North Fifth Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard.

At least two commissioners, Bruce Woodbury and Chip Maxfield, who both also serve on the Transportation Commission, agreed with Snow.

At the end of the discussion, which lasted more than an hour, the Clark County commissioners ordered county officials to go back to the drawing board and work out an agreement with Transportation Commission officials.

Contact reporter Francis McCabe at fmccabe@reviewjournal.com or (702) 387-2904.