Street deals

The Nevada Department of Transportation is trying to play the role of a shrewd sports general manager in search of a trade partner — preferably a sucker. Its goal: unload old, declining, expensive holdings in exchange for younger, cheaper property.

The state wants to reduce its road maintenance costs because of budget constraints brought about by a recession-driven drop in tax collections. Over the years, Las Vegas Valley roads maintained by the state have become urban thoroughfares that are indistinguishable from city- and county-maintained roads. Among them are long stretches of Tropicana Avenue, Sahara Avenue and Flamingo Road.

So NDOT conceived an offer much to its advantage: giving those roads to Clark County in exchange for control of the county-built Las Vegas Beltway, which coincidentally doesn’t need much maintenance right now.

Not coincidentally, the deal hasn’t gone through. In fact, Deputy Transportation Director Scott Rawlins told the state Transportation Board on Monday that there’s “zero interest” from cities and counties to take on 903 miles of state roads. Those governments have budget challenges of their own.

It’s worth noting that Clark County has spent two decades building the beltway because the state wouldn’t. NDOT cried poverty, even during the flush years of the ’90s and 2000s, because it was too busy diverting tax revenues from Southern Nevada to the Reno area and the rurals to build and maintain roads there. Pardon us if we trust the county more than the state to complete and maintain the beltway.

That said, it matters little to taxpayers which government is responsible for maintaining which Nevada roads — they’re stuck with the bill regardless. So having government employees float trade offers that amount to swapping Drew Brees for a practice-squad kicker hardly seems productive.

If the state is serious about shrinking its maintenance obligations, the solution has been in front of lawmakers’ faces for years: toll roads. State law banned them before last year, when the Legislature authorized the construction of a Boulder City bypass as an experimental toll project. Across the country, states are turning to such projects to save money.

Get rid of the toll-road ban altogether, then see what options present themselves. That might be a deal no one could afford to refuse.