LETTER: Awfully generous to LVCVA chief
I read with interest the story of Steve Hill, CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, receiving a bonus of $247,500 and a raise of 9 percent, bringing his salary to $539,550 (June 24 Review-Journal). Wow. Does anyone really deserve a bonus of more than a quarter million dollars when they already make a half million in salary and have an expense account that most of us in the real world could never even imagine?
Will Mr. Hill give some of the cash back if he can’t turn the visitor count around as it plummets for the third straight month with no end in sight? I think not.
Does Mr. Hill have any control over these casinos that are nickel and diming tourists unmercifully to the point where they are not coming back? Resort fees and parking fees — along with shows that are so pricey you can now pay for them overtime on your credit card — all make visitors who once never blinked an eye about coming here take pause and look elsewhere for a vacation.
How will Mr. Hill turn this situation around? Are his salary and bonuses performance-based and who monitors that set of parameters, if they exist?
In our economy, Mr. Hill’s pay is way out of line and exceeds what individuals such as surgeons and physicians could make — and their job has much more on the line than visitor counts. The convention authority needs a huge dose of reality, not another raise.