Ring around valley may be collared in Assembly

Larry Henry

Tuesday, June 17, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Late-session game playing by Assemblyman Morse Arberry could kill a bill creating a no-growth boundary in Clark County, says Sen. Dina Titus.

Titus said Southern Nevada elected officials who oppose a growth boundary may have convinced Arberry, chairman of the Assembly money committee, to bottle up Assembly Bill 490. Titus and Arberry are Democrats representing Las Vegas. Arberry's district also includes parts of North Las Vegas.

"Either North Las Vegas has gotten to him, or Yvonne Atkinson Gates," Titus said.

Atkinson Gates, who chairs the Clark County Commission, has criticized the boundary in Titus' plan creating a "ring around the Valley" to prohibit development in the outlying areas. Gates said the boundary is too far out to have much impact.

North Las Vegas officials have also spoken against the bill, saying it will hamper the Las Vegas Speedway's plans to expand into a larger tourist destination. The speedway straddles the line.

Before AB 490 could be voted on Monday in the Assembly, Arberry had the bill moved to the Ways and Means Committee, allegedly to study its cost to taxpayers.

Titus huddled with Arberry on the Assembly floor in an unsuccessful effort to persuade him to let it go to a full vote in the Assembly so it can move to the Senate for a quick round of hearings. The Legislature is expected to adjourn by July 4.

"There's so much room for mischief this late in the session," Titus said in an interview.

Titus said Arberry's concern about a fiscal impact is unwarranted. She said she has received an opinion from the attorney general's office that the bill won't have a cost associated with it.

After Monday's floor session, Arberry said he didn't talk to North Las Vegas officials or to Atkinson Gates. He said he was told the ring had a fiscal note.

Arberry promised to bring the bill up for a vote in committee "soon." It passed out of the Infrastructure Committee earlier this month.

Even if the bill is voted out of Arberry's committee, there is uncertainty about whether it will succeed in the Senate.

One influential senator said Monday that the bill probably won't pass in the upper house because of concerns about land owners who have property outside the ring.

Titus has said those property owners will be grandfathered in.

Titus said she and Sens. Jon Porter and Mark James, both R-Las Vegas, want to include AB 490 in a package of bills addressing growth in Southern Nevada.

"We feel the No. 1 issue facing Southern Nevada is growth," Porter said. "That's a mandate from our constituents."

Included in that package is a measure to raise sales taxes a quarter-cent to pump more water into Las Vegas. AB 291 was set to come up for a vote today in the Senate Taxation Committee, said Chairman Mike McGinness, R-Fallon.