Woodbury says inaction might force growth limits

“It’s just inconceivable to me that the state would not act responsibly to address this issue in a decisive way,” said County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, who also chairs the Regional Transportation Commission. “In the unlikely event that the state doesn’t take that action, we have to consider that our freeway system, far more than ever before, is seriously overwhelmed.

“Unless NDOT (Nevada Department of Transportation) is given the resources to address capacity, we’ll be approaching a crisis situation. With all that is happening, it may be too late to head off a crisis,” Woodbury said.

“The question will at least need to be asked whether the community wants to continue with the explosive resort corridor growth without an adequate transit infrastructure.”

The Transportation Department claims it is $5 billion short of fully funding 10 statewide “superprojects,” including widenings of Interstate 15 and U.S. Highway 95 in the Las Vegas Valley, and a Boulder City bypass road.

Various funding schemes, none of which fully fill the shortfall, have hit gridlock in the statehouse. Gov. Jim Gibbons vows to veto any tax increases, while Gibbons’ own plan to shift existing tax revenue doesn’t appear to have enough support.

Woodbury said he doesn’t have a specific growth-slowing proposal, but such a scheme would likely involve limiting new hotels and condos in the resort corridor, since growth there is what’s attracting tourists, workers and other newcomers that are adding to congestion.

Clark County Manager Virginia Valentine calls a growth brake a last-ditch measure, if other solutions fail to materialize.

“We would want to exercise other options first,” she said. “I think we’d want to do everything we can before we put the brakes on it.”

Woodbury’s threat appears to have been dismissed in Carson City.

“I don’t think the Legislature is going to appreciate Bruce Woodbury threatening them,” said state Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas. “Implementing growth control? That is not going to happen.”

Woodbury has made that threat before without acting on it, when faced with political gridlock on transportation issues.

“In the past, we’ve always been able to come up with a local solution,” he said, in the form of county voter approval of Question 10 taxes for road work in 1990 and again in 2002.

While Woodbury won’t rule out asking voters to pass a third Question 10-style measure to raise local taxes to pay for roads, he believes such an alternative would hardly be fair, a view echoed by other local leaders.

“We’ve taxed ourselves twice through ballot initiatives. For anyone at the state to say the locals need to step up and solve the problem, we did long ago, when the state didn’t,” said Jacob Snow, the RTC’s general manager. “They’ve shorted us (of state funding) because we’ve done such a good job of taking care of ourselves.”

Valentine notes the county, through Question 10, is solely underwriting the $1.1 billion Las Vegas Beltway; helped pay for the $35 million U.S. 95/Beltway “Henderson Spaghetti Bowl” interchange and a renovated I-15/Blue Diamond Road junction; and took over maintenance responsibilities from the state for the Strip. All are projects or tasks normally handled by state, not local, transportation agencies.

Snow said existing Question 10 revenues of around $200 million a year aren’t enough to pay for all existing local needs, much less to help pay for the proposed superprojects.

“I don’t think there’s any chance for existing funds to take on any of these” state projects, Snow said.

Despite the lack of consensus in Carson City, Woodbury said discussion of politically unworkable proposals are better than none at all.

“We think any proposal helps move the ball down the field, and puts various concepts under discussion,” Woodbury said. “I don’t think any one of those proposals will pass intact. There’s going to have to be give and take, and compromise.

“If there’s a will, there’s a way. I think they can certainly get it done if they are willing to focus on it.”

Review-Journal writer Ed Vogel contributed to this report.