June 06, 2011

Legislative clock running down on Vegas stadium and arena deals

It's getting late early out there in Nevada, as the state assembly adjourns tomorrow, leaving little time to hash out the details of the complicated arena tax-increment financing bill that three developers are seeking to take advantage of (and a fourth is seeking to have amended so it can get in the running).

So far, legislators seem wary — "it is kind of hard to get all these bills like this at the last minute and often extremely difficult to get them through," said state senator Sheila Leslie — but that's not necessarily a major obstacle: "Typically, agreements are not made until the end," local AFL-CIO official and former state legislator Danny Thompson told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "That is the way this place works."

Of course, the Nevada legislature has been called into special session five times in the last six years, so as we're seeing in Minnesota, it ain't over even when it's over.