Road plan caveat echoes

With critics lambasting his plan to divert existing taxes to road work projects, Gov. Jim Gibbons on Friday said he is open to other ideas, but with one caveat that might limit compromise: no new taxes.

“I recognize some other people may have some other ideas. I’m willing to listen, as long as their proposals don’t propose increasing taxes,” Gibbons said during a Las Vegas visit. “My door is always open.

“I’ve got great hopes the Legislature will recognize the need to solve this issue and bring their suggestions if they don’t accept mine,” he said. “As long as they don’t raise taxes, we can get something done.”

Opponents indicated another plan probably would be necessary if the state was to dig itself out of a road funding shortfall, which is now pegged at around $5 billion, without hurting education or Las Vegas tourism.

“It is alarming that the governor just appears to be playing games with this issue,” Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said in Carson City. “It is alarming he doesn’t reach out to key legislators to develop a plan that would make sense.”

Under Gibbons’ plan unveiled Thursday, the state highway fund would receive almost $784 million over the next eight years from room taxes, and revenue from taxes on motor vehicle sales and the live entertainment tax.

The plan would underwrite $2.5 billion in bonds to be used for widening freeways throughout the state.

Neither side in the debate can unilaterally impose Gibbons’ plan or any alternative. While Democrats led by Buckley have enough votes to kill the plan, Gibbons can veto any measure they propose.

Buckley was particularly concerned that the shifts would leave other programs underfunded. “Education would be cut. Where would those cuts come from?” she said.

“We would like to solve the transportation problem, too,” Buckley said. “But I am skeptical we can solve the transportation problem by shortchanging education and other areas of the budget.”

Gibbons believes the revenue shifts are fair by targeting the pocketbooks of tourists and new residents, who add traffic to Nevada roads.

Buckley contended that as student enrollment continues to grow, Gibbons’ proposal would make matters worse.

“That money funds things now,” she said. “Those things are going to exist in 2009. They aren’t going away. Growth means more people.”

Prior to the unveiling of the Gibbons plan, the Legislature had been considering the recommendations of a blue ribbon task force assembled by former Gov. Kenny Guinn, which recommended a series of new taxes and fees and revenue shifts that would generate nearly $4 billion for road work.

Gibbons dismissed that plan, which would have included an increase in the state’s gasoline tax. And the governor has said that a plan offered by statehouse Democrats would raise taxes by $2 billion.

Buckley said Democrats have not completed their road plan and Gibbons must have been referring Thursday to a Senate Republican proposal, Senate Bill 324, that would raise taxes for roads.

In proposing the bill, Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, emphasized he was not necessarily advocating the bill, but wanted it to become a forum on which legislators could discuss whether funds are needed for roads.

Buckley herself was one of the key advocates for Assembly Bill 595 that would raise $1.3 billion for road construction by assessing a new weight-distance trucking tax and redirecting existing rental car tax revenues to highway construction.

In announcing that bill, Buckley said it offered only a partial solution and legislative leaders were looking at other options.

Buckley and Assembly Majority Leader John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, declined to identify what other road funding options they are considering.

Oceguera said one option is shifting revenue to the highway fund from existing taxes, which Gibbons’ plan would do.

Assembly Transportation Chairman Kelvin Atkinson, D-North Las Vegas, has met with Republicans and Democrats in an effort to develop a bipartisan solution to the transportation construction shortfall.

The diversion of room taxes is already staunchly opposed by various statehouse Democrats, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, the Nevada Gaming Association and the convention authority, among others.

Buckley said the convention authority has helped the Las Vegas economy boom by attracting conventions that otherwise would have gone to other cities.

Goodman said the reallocation would prevent the tourism agency from carrying out an $890 million renovation to the Las Vegas Convention Center, a move Goodman claimed would cost Las Vegas $20 billion in convention business.

Gibbons dismissed that claim, noting that the diversion primarily takes growth in revenues from the tax stream, leaving the convention authority with $2.2 billion over eight years.

“I believe that $2.2 billion ought to be able to cover much of what they are able to do. I’m not concerned that they can’t operate,” Gibbons said. “I am concerned that if we don’t fix these roads, no matter what we do, we won’t be able to get people to the Convention Center or their hotel rooms.

“I’m not going to allow for them to be dismantled,” he said.

While acknowledging the opposition, Gibbons said it is not causing him to revisit his plan. “Not everybody is in agreement, but not everybody is opposed,” he said.

That latter group includes Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, who called the governor’s plan a “common sense solution” to the road funding shortfall.

Beers said there really isn’t a “crisis” in highway funding and the Nevada Department of Transportation needs to do a cost-benefit analysis before constructing new roads.

“I am not sure we need an immediate response to this ‘crisis,’ ” he said. “It appears contrived by folks interested in things other than moving Nevadans comfortably from point A to point B. But I could be wrong.”

State Transportation Director Susan Martinovich conceded that Gibbons’ plan, which would only fill half the road funding deficit over the next eight years, could result in some state highway projects being pushed back beyond a planned road work window between 2008 and 2015.

Gibbons said that was not of great concern to him. “Some of the projects, you can’t start today. You couldn’t spend $3.8 billion (the original shortfall projection) on the projects today if we had that money.”

The projects include improvements to Interstate 15 and U.S. Highway 95 in the Las Vegas Valley and a new highway bypass around Boulder City, among other projects.