Strip-area arena initiative not on lawmakers’ agenda

CARSON CITY -- Legislators appear likely to ignore an initiative petition that would levy a sales tax in Clark County and allow construction of a $500 million sports arena near the Strip.

If they fail to act by next week's deadline, the proposal will be placed before voters in 2012.

"It's not on the agenda," Assembly Taxation Chairwoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick said Tuesday when asked about whether a hearing will be conducted on the arena initiative. "No one has asked about it."

Legislators have until March 18 to act on Initiative Petition 1, which would raise money for the sports arena through a 0.9 percent sales tax increase in the resort corridor within a three-mile radius of Imperial Palace.

Harrah's, now part of Caesars Entertainment, has proposed donating 10 acres behind the Imperial Palace for a 20,000-seat arena and trying to attract a professional basketball or hockey team.

Harrah's circulators collected 200,000 signatures on petitions last year from people who favor the arena plan. Under the initiative process, legislators have 40 days to act on the proposal, or it automatically goes before Nevada voters during the general election in November 2012.

"Our preference would have been for the Legislature to respond to the petition affirmatively (and allow taxes to be collected now)," said Bruce Woodbury, the former Clark County commissioner who has been leading Harrah's drive for the arena. "But we had thought they would just let it go on the ballot. That's what we expected."

Woodbury said legislators aren't about to back any tax increases unless the money goes into the state general fund.

He said that 95 percent of the sales taxes that would be collected for the arena would come from tourists, not locals.

Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas, declined to say why she has not scheduled a hearing on the petition.

If she did so, she would be placing herself in the middle of a battle between Harrah's and casinos that oppose the arena project, including MGM Resorts International. MGM has been fighting the proposal since petitions were circulated last summer.

MGM filed a lawsuit last year in Carson City to derail the petition drive, but District Judge James Todd Russell on Sept. 21 refused to grant the company the relief it sought.

But Woodbury said he figures that was "part of the reason" the arena petition is being ignored.

Although Caesars Entertainment has acquired Harrah's, Woodbury said the effort to construct the arena continues.

Even if Kirkpatrick were to schedule a hearing next week on the arena petition, it is doubtful that it would pass the Assembly and then go through a hearing and a vote in the Senate before the March 18 deadline.

There are several other proposals to build sports arenas in the Las Vegas area, in the county and the city of Las Vegas.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.