May 31, 2011

Nevada legislature readies TIF financing bill for Vegas arena

Las Vegas still has more arena and stadium plans than you can shake a stick at, but pretty much all of them have one thing in common: They'd use tax increment financing, the much-derided financing scheme that kicks back property taxes (and sometimes other taxes) to help a developer pay off construction costs. And now there's a bill in the Nevada legislature to create a TIF district for an arena (or a stadium or something), introduced as only the Nevada legislature can:

This is the murky way some policy gets made in the final days at the Legislature: No agenda, no formal meeting on the bill. The "fiscal notes" meant to tell lawmakers and taxpayers the potential cost of a bill to the public were not available. Instead, lawmakers gathered to the side of the Senate Chambers - "behind the bar" - as press and lobbyists tried to listen in.

Sen. Ben Kieckhefer, R-Reno, and Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, voted against introducing the bill.

"I have no idea what it means," Kieckhefer said. "I've had six different lobbyists tell me it means six different things."

Potential beneficiaries include Chris Milam's proposed $1.95 billion sportsplex, the old Cordish plan, and, well, pretty much anything. No word yet on the bill's likely fate, probably because legislators are still reading it to figure out what the heck it means — not that that's stopped anyone before.