Tax hikes suggested for UNLV stadium
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
A UNLV stadium board member, Regent James Dean Leavitt, proposed Wednesday that the Clark County sales tax and the lodging room tax be increased slightly to help pay for an on-campus domed stadium of 50,000 to 55,000 seats.
Leavitt said University of Nevada, Las Vegas students should also pay a suggested $100 toward a “perpetual fund” for major university projects such as a stadium or medical school.
Leavitt said the sales tax should be increased slightly because everyone pays it in the county. And the room tax should increase slightly because the Las Vegas resort industry will benefit financially from increased tourism that will be created by a new stadium.
“This facility will directly benefit UNLV, the resort industry, Clark County residents and the state of Nevada,” Leavitt wrote to his fellow board members.
“It benefits the resort industry by creating an asset that through event programming will bring tourists to Las Vegas from all over the world throughout each month of the year,” wrote Leavitt, a Las Vegas lawyer.
The proposed stadium costs range from $832.6 million for domed to $655.2 million for open-air to $522.9 million for an open-air, shaded venue of 42,000 seats.
UNLV President Don Snyder, the stadium board chairman, called a sales tax hike the “most viable alternative.” The current Clark County sales tax rate is 8.1 percent.
Fellow board members Dallas Haun, Mike Wixom and Cedric Crear said they also supported the idea of a county sales tax increase to help pay for the stadium but opposed a room tax increase.
“If you’re going to do it, a sales tax and a general obligation bond are the way to go,” Wixom said.
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to build the stadium.
Crear said a room tax increase wouldn’t fly politically.
But board member Chris Giunchigliani, a county commissioner, opposed increasing the sales tax.
“A county sales tax increase is regressive and hits people on fixed incomes,” she said. And any room tax increase should first help pay for the proposed expansion of the Las Vegas Convention Center — a major project proposed by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, she said.
“The convention center expansion is first in line,” Giunchigliani said.
Board member Paul Chakmak, a Boyd Gaming Corp. executive who serves on the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board, said, “The resort industry is not asking for a stadium to be built.”
Snyder interpreted that comment as the resort industry not wanting to appear too bullish for a stadium because then the community would expect the hotel-casinos to solve everyone’s problems.
While Leavitt and Crear support a stadium that is domed, board member Rick Arpin of MGM Resorts International cautioned that a covered stadium could “cannibalize existing events” at private venues and wanted a pros and cons report on the idea of covering a stadium.
At the meeting’s start, Perry Clausen, Southwest Airlines manager of flight op- erations, discussed the effect of a campus stadium on neighboring McCarran International Airport. UNLV officials dropped their original stadium site because of flight path problems and are evaluating a new site next to the Thomas & Mack Center.
“I have sad news. We cannot time takeoffs when the other team is calling a play,” Clausen joked to the board.
But plane noise near a stadium could be a serious issue because board member Mike Wixom, a regent, wanted the stadium consultant to check whether plane noise would affect events such as concerts.
Bill Rhoda, the stadium board consultant, said a domed stadium would host 21 annual non-UNLV football events such as rugby, soccer and concerts, with attendance of 845,000. An open-air stadium would host only 11 non-UNLV football events a year, with attendance of 404,000.
Potential funding options included: county sales tax increase of 0.25 percent would generate $79 million a year; a sales tax for the resort corridor of 0.9 percent would generate $83 million a year; room tax increase of 1 percent would generate $44 million a year; a live entertainment tax of 5 percent would generate $35 million; slot machine excise tax of $50 per slot machine, $10 million; car rental tax increase of 2 percent would generate $7.75 million; and a tax increment district, $500,000.
The 11-member stadium board, made up of regents, public officials and hotel-resort representatives, does not have taxing authority.
The panel is required to present a final report on the stadium cost, financing and viability to the state Legislature by Sept. 30. The next stadium board meeting is Aug. 28. Contact reporter Alan Snel at asnel@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273. Follow @BicycleManSnel on Twitter.