EDITORIAL: Henderson City Council wants to give away the land for new Raiders headquarters

The point of providing the Raiders $750 million to build a new stadium was to bring the team to Las Vegas. The subsidy was the price to lure an NFL franchise to Nevada. Adding a mega-events center will also help drive tourism, still the engine of Nevada’s economy.

But now that the team is coming, Henderson officials are falling all over themselves to become home to the team’s headquarters and practice facility. And that, the Review-Journal’s Meghin Delaney reported last week, means a late Christmas gift for the Raiders.

“The city of Henderson is offering to sell 55 vacant acres to the Oakland Raiders for the team’s new headquarters and practice facility for half the land’s appraised value,” Ms. Delaney reported. Henderson taxpayers would be out about $6 million if the city sold a parcel valued at $12 million for $6.05 million.

Clark County Commission Chair Steve Sisolak said the Raiders had looked at other locations in the Las Vegas Valley, but that he didn’t think anyone else could top Henderson’s offer. That statement should raise red flags even for the most strident supporters of government-directed economic development.

The theory behind offering out-of-state companies special incentives to come here is that those companies don’t generate any Nevada tax dollars if they stay in California. The theory sometimes works (think Tesla) and sometimes doesn’t (think Faraday Future). But it will never work for Nevadans if local jurisdictions start bidding against one another. That really is a race to the bottom.

It’s not just the Henderson City Council that’s engaged in these types of deals. Last month, the city of Las Vegas sold a prime parcel in Symphony Park to a developer for $4.25 million. The problem, as reported by the Review-Journal’s Jamie Munks, was that appraisers valued the land at potentially more than $20 million, depending on the use.

Councilman Bob Coffin cast the lone nay vote. He said, “I cannot support a sale in this sweet spot of town so much below value.”

Mr. Coffin got it right, while the rest of the council got it wrong.

You’d think local politicians would be wary of dubious land deals, given local history. Back in 1999, for instance, the Clark County Commission gave developer and gambler Bill Walters a 99-year lease on the Bali Hai Golf Club. In exchange for a prime spot of real estate just south of the airport on the Strip, the county was to receive 40 percent of the golf club’s profits.

Mr. Walters claimed the golf club never turned a profit. That was true, but as the RJ reported in 2010, yearly audit reports showed why. Over 10 years, the club paid $6 million in consulting fees to — ta-da — the Walters Group.

Southern Nevada has a pattern of local government officials squandering public resources through suspect land deals. Making the Raiders pay market value for land — especially after they’ve already received $750 million from Nevada taxpayers — isn’t too much to ask.