V&T loan may still make state budget

Friday, Jan. 29, 1999 | 12:43 p.m.

Gov. Kenny Guinn proposed cutting the loan in his efforts to bridge a predicted $137-million state budget shortfall.

Dini, D-Yerington, and Amodei, R-Carson City, participating in a town hall meeting, said the upcoming Las Vegas openings of the Mandalay Bay, Venetian and Paris hotel-casinos could brighten the state's economic forecast.

If the result is a more optimistic report on tax revenues to the state by the Nevada Economic Forum, Dini and Amodei think the V&T could see its loan guarantee restored.

The guarantee is seen as a way to attract the $20 million in private donations needed to rebuild the 17-mile V&T between Carson City and Virginia City.

The state funding has remained unused since the Legislature approved the Dini-sponsored bill in 1995. The loan would be issued once the private funding is raised. So far, the V&T Railroad Commission has raised $20,000.

"This money's been laying around too long," Dini said. "You figure somebody would grab it sooner or later. That's what happened."

Dini praised Storey County's efforts to restore the V&T because the county approved a quarter-cent sales tax increase for the project. But the Assembly speaker was less charitable toward Carson City.

"Storey County has done its share," Dini said. "In Carson City, nobody's saying anything. Nobody in that community is leading with an idea to do something. Everybody ought to be in on the V&T. Tahoe ought to be in on it. Reno ought to be in on it."