State’s transportation cuts criticized by Reid

Larry Henry

Thursday, Oct. 9, 1997 | 11:02 a.m.

Sen. Harry Reid has criticized an anti-gambling House chairman for cutting $7 million in Nevada transportation projects.

One item cut was language to authorize the widening of Interstate 15 between Las Vegas and Southern California. Casino companies are pushing for that money to ease traffic. Funding could be approved during the spring in separate legislation.

The transportation cuts also inspired dueling press releases from Reid, D-Nev., and Rep. John Ensign, R-Nev. Ensign is expected to challenge Reid in the 1998 election.

Each is claiming credit for transportation funding that was approved and implying that the other is to blame for cuts.

In a release issued Wednesday, Reid hinted that some of the cuts occurred because Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., who chairs the House Transportation Appropriations Committee, has a vendetta against Nevada.

Wolf spearheaded legislation last year to create a national commission to study gambling. He also influenced the selection of anti-casino members to the nine-person commission.

"It's no secret how Chairman Wolf feels about gaming," Reid said. "It would be very discouraging if his personal ideology is interfering with the transportation needs of Nevada."

During a telephone interview today, Ensign said it was "dumb" for Reid to take a shot at Wolf.

"You criticize Frank Wolf and now you're going to go back to him? That's not good for our state," Ensign said.

In his release, Reid said he was "deeply disappointed" that the House "slashed" some Nevada projects, including a runway expansion at the Laughlin-Bullhead City International Airport.

"Although we are one of the fastest-growing states in the country, our delegation is small," he said. "We do not have enough members in the House to ensure our projects get funded."

In a release issued earlier in the day, Ensign said his "only disappointment" was that the Senate Appropriations Committee trimmed the amount of money that the Citizens Area Transit bus system will receive to buy buses.

"I've been badgering a lot of people on Capitol Hill about Southern Nevada's needs because of our rapid growth, and it looks like they're listening," he said.

In his statement, Reid said, "Although we still managed to keep $9.5 million in funding for buses in Reno and Las Vegas, $5 million for the monorail (in Las Vegas) and $1 million for a new coordinated transit system at Lake Tahoe, projects which were key to the future growth and development of Nevada were slashed out of this bill by the House."

Ensign said Reid should have saved the projects since he sits on the joint committee that made the cuts. After the cuts, Nevada's funding in the Department of Transportation budget amounts to $24 million.