Bill designed to create jobs passes

With an agreement in place to balance Nevada’s upside-down budget, legislators voted early Monday to approve a bill they say could create thousands of jobs directly and indirectly through road construction.

Assemblyman Kelvin Atkinson, D-North Las Vegas, crafted the bill to use a portion of an existing gasoline tax and a portion of an existing sales tax to build roads.

The state Senate approved the bill 21-0. The Assembly voted 37-5 in favor of it. A key member of the staff of Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons said the governor will probably support it.

"We certainly have the projects ready to go to put unemployed men and women back to work," Bryan Gresh, a lobbyist for the Regional Transportation Commission in Clark County, said during testimony on the Senate floor.

Atkinson said the bill would use a 75 cent per gallon tax on gasoline to generate money for road projects.

A one-eighth-cent portion of sales tax that goes to the transportation commission also would support the jobs proposal.

Lynn Hettrick, deputy chief of staff for Gibbons, said the proposal wouldn’t necessarily be considered new taxes because they already exist.

The gasoline tax goes to a petroleum cleanup fund that is capped at $7.5 million, Hettrick said. The money above $7.5 million could be used for road building. The petroleum cleanup money would remain intact.

The Regional Transportation Commission fund, supported by a portion of sales tax, has a lifetime cap of $1.7 billion. Money above the cap also could go to road building, Atkinson said.

If the funding sources can generate $50 million, the state could bond for $500 million, Atkinson said.

Late Sunday, Gibbons amended his special session proclamation to extend the deadline for the session to 5 p.m. Monday and included the jobs bill as a subject for legislators to consider.