EDITORIAL: Surprise! Las Vegas Monorail wants to milk the taxpayers

Las Vegas Monorail officials were back in front of the Clark County Commission on Tuesday, tin cups in hand. Too bad Keegan-Michael Key wasn’t available to interpret their gibberish.

Mr. Key drew laughs for his hilarious portrayal of Luther, Barack Obama’s “anger translator,” on the comedy show “Key &Peele.” He plays a similar character on a series of commercials for Quicken Loans. He would have come in handy Tuesday at the Clark County Government Center.

Monorail President Curtis Myles has insisted for months that proposed extensions of the rail line would be privately financed. But here he was asking commissioners to cough up in coming decades as much as $135 million in taxpayer contributions to the project. The revised plan is to start with a new station at the MSG Sphere ($32 million) to serve the Sands Expo and Convention Center before building out the line southward to Mandalay Bay ($140 million).

“Discussions with lenders and the market for this kind of project is relatively narrow for financing,” Mr. Myles said.

Translation: There aren’t many investors willing to give us money for this white elephant.

“Those lenders have suggested that we can get a portion of the project done (MSG Sphere station) in advance,” Mr. Myles continued, “while the rest of the project (Mandalay Bay) is developed and we complete our obligation at the airport.”

Translation: Lenders have no confidence we can pull this whole thing off and make a profit, so the few private entities that might actually loan us money would prefer we move forward in baby steps to minimize their financial exposure.

The Review-Journal’s Mick Akers reported that Mr. Myles also told the commissioners a potential lender “has provided the company with an aggressive financial timeline” and wants everything set up within a few months. “After that window closes,” Mr. Myles said, “this particular piece of capital is no longer available. If this capital is no longer available, it’s very likely that we will not do either one of the (projects) because this lender is also anticipating in participating in the larger financing as well.”

Translation: If we don’t get a guaranteed taxpayer commitment from the county right away, potential backers want no part of this fiasco.

Oh, and did we mention that cost estimates for these projects — now at $172 million — have already ballooned by more than 56 percent? Onward and upward! Or that monorail officials refuse to provide updated ridership numbers?

It shouldn’t take Mr. Key’s translations for county commissioners to understand that acquiescing to the monorail’s financial pleas and harnessing local taxpayers to this endeavor would be a colossal and irresponsible blunder.