Green Light, Yellow Light

Las Vegas—Just two days after the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority board approved revised plans for the enhancement of the Las Vegas Convention Center, Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons proposed cutting the authority's room-tax allocation to increase funding for transportation improvements.

At the LVCVA board's May meeting, the enhancement team proposed a revised design, $890 million budget and 2011 completion date. The plan approved a year ago included a $737 million budget and a completion date of 2010. A few elements from early concepts, such as a large general session space, were cut from the latest design in favor of more practical additions.

Terry Miller, CEO of HNTB Architecture, the firm overseeing the enhancement, said, "As we've moved through the last year and a half, the program has changed," mainly because of customer demand and rising construction costs.

The team made an extensive presentation in support of the plan, with statistics and projections demonstrating competition in the convention market and the benefits Las Vegas would reap by investing in improvements.

LVCVA President and CEO Rossi Ralenkotter concluded by noting that 315 groups with a total estimated 12.6 million attendees and worth $20.2 billion in economic impact were holding space at the convention center.

The board unanimously passed the revised plan. It also unanimously passed a resolution opposing redistribution or increase of visitor-paid room taxes.

The resolution stated, "The key funding source to pay off the long-term debt of the convention center renovation is future visitor-paid room tax revenue. Reallocating the room tax will cause the LVCVA to extremely reduce, postpone or cancel the renovation project completely."

Echoing other board members, Chuck Bowling, executive vice president of sales and marketing for MGM Grand, noted that Orlando, Anaheim and other competitors were spending lots of money to woo Las Vegas' key customers — like those 315 groups tentatively on the books. Taking money from LVCVA programs would cost the city in the long run, he added.

On May 10, Gibbons unveiled his proposed transportation funding plan, which would reallocate approximately $424 million from Clark County room taxes for use in Clark County road construction over the next eight years, cutting directly into the LVCVA's budget.

"People who live here should not have to shoulder the financial burden for those who are visiting our state," Gibbons said, in a statement. "Congestion will discourage tourism, seriously damaging the economy of our entire state."

Tyra Hilliard, a professor in the University of Las Vegas college of hotel administration, noted that hotel room taxes are often scrutinized when public budgets get tight because outside groups think it's "free money."

"But it's not," she added. "Somebody has to get those people (paying the taxes) here, and that's where the CVB comes in."

Hilliard believes the LVCC is in need of renovation to remain competitive. Having moved to Las Vegas three years ago from the East Coast, however, she also finds public transportation, by comparison, pretty bad.

Karen Chupka, senior vice president of events and conferences for the Consumer Electronics Assn., said Las Vegas traffic, inflated hotel rates and having no single building with a continuous flow to house them were all problems for shows the size of her Intl. CES.

"So, without knowing what transportation issues will be addressed and what expansion projects may be delayed, it is hard to comment" on Gibbons' plan, she said.

The point may soon be moot. Political observers in Carson City, Nevada's capital, were predicting at press time that Gibbons' proposal would not make it through the State Assembly.