Where I Stand — Robert Forbuss: Vegas has work to do

Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2000 | 9:59 a.m.

Editor's note: In August Where I Stand is written by guest columnists. Today's guest, Robert Forbuss, is chairman of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce. Forbuss discusses some of the enormous challenges ahead that face this city.

Explosive growth has turned a small town into a big city overnight. For that matter, Las Vegas is the land of opportunity. Be it a new job, business or place to live and retire, Southern Nevada offers it all: good weather, reasonably priced housing, very low taxes and a 24-hour lifestyle. In less than 10 years the population of Clark County will be approaching 2 million. A great place to be, right?

Hopefully that's true, but the challenges ahead are enormous.

The school district must open one new school a month and hire 1,800 new teachers a year to handle the explosion. In just a few years the Clark County School District has grown to a super-size of 230,000 kids, making it the sixth largest school district in the country, larger than Phoenix, San Francisco or San Diego. Some folks think the solution to fixing the school district is to break it into smaller districts. This approach seems to appeal to certain more-affluent areas that don't have a lot of at-risk kids. The answer to improving education is not in breaking up the school district but opening it up to communication, public input and vision. We must work as a community and not let some kids be sacrificed. Carlos Garcia, our new superintendent, has vision and guts. The community and the School Board must give him the support he will need to achieve resu lts.

Clean air may be one of the most significant challenges we will have to deal with in the future. Dust is the problem. We are out of compliance with the current U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standard and have a very short time to submit a plan to fix the problem (a new standard goes into effect next year that will be even more difficult to achieve).

If we can't meet dust compliance, the federal government will restrict growth by cutting off federal monies and imposing strict sanctions. Correcting the dust problem comes with a huge price tag. Everyone is scrambling to take charge of this issue, but I am afraid power wrangling is more important than solutions.

Water is a scarce resource in the desert. We are running out of our allocation from Lake Mead. Pat Mulroy and the Water District have been negotiating for years to get some of the other states along the river to share their water. It looks like they may have a deal, but that deal comes with a price tag. The mantra for the future must be conservation. Lip service won't be enough, action is required.

Transportation infrastructure is also badly stressed. Anyone who has been stuck on Interstate 15 or U.S. 95 knows we have big problems getting around this valley. We are constantly playing catch-up. The beltway, still three or four years from completion, will not be the panacea. The widening of U.S. 95, under construction for years to come, will be a nightmare. As traffic gets worse people actually consider other forms of transportation. The proposed monorail offers a ray of hope in dealing with the Strip traffic jam, but perhaps more significantly it may be the first step in connecting the rest of the community to a real, safe, clean people-mover system. Taxpayers won't have to pay for the Strip monorail, but as it connects into the neighborhoods we will certainly have to find local, state and federal monies to fund it.

Gov. Kenny Guinn is telling anyone who will listen that the state of Nevada is not collecting enough money to keep it solvent over the next four to six years. That is certainly not good news for those who pay taxes -- and who doesn't? Hopefully people will listen to him and give him the support he will need because everyone has a pet project. The pie is only so large. There must be priorities or we will become another Orange County and go broke. The solution for funding governmental shortfalls is not in the tax initiative referendums proposed by the teachers union and Sen. Joe Neal.

Our local governments and our Legislature must show courage, integrity and foresight in developing a comprehensive long-term approach (not an easy task for those who relish re-election more than good public policy). No one wants more taxes, but everyone wants abundant water, great schools, excellent transportation and cleaner air. We are now at a very important juncture in our history. Hopefully we can shed our parochialism and move together to define our future.