Transit tax goes to ballot

Wednesday, June 19, 2002 | 11:29 a.m.

The Clark County Commission voted Tuesday to put a $2.7 billion tax initiative for road construction and mass transit improvements on the ballot in November over the objections of striking bus drivers.

The main element of the tax package would be nearly $2 billion from increasing the local sales tax from 7.25 percent to 7.5 percent. If voters approve the advisory measure in November, it still would have to be enacted by the Legislature next spring.

The vote was 6-0, with Commissioner Myrna Williams absent.

Commissioners Dario Herrera and Erin Kenny, both Democrats who have counted on union support in the past, supported the tax initiative but criticized ATC, the bus management company embroiled in a monthlong strike, for failing to offer a contract acceptable to the drivers.

"We have a conflict here that involves union busting," said driver Ben Carter, a member of Amalgamated Transit Local 1637's executive board.

If the strike is settled, the union -- and the powerful state AFL-CIO -- will support the initiative, Carter said. But without the settlement, labor will oppose the package.

Leaders from unions in the construction trades and the AFL-CIO have privately grumbled that failure of the tax initiative could impact thousands of union members, directly through the loss of roadwork jobs and indirectly through the gridlock that transportation officials predict will occur without the financial boost.

Kenny, who is running for lieutenant governor, suggested that the Regional Transportation Commission, the public agency with overall responsibility for the bus system, might consider working with another management company.

"There are contracts that are made and there are very few that can't be broken," she said. "There is always a way to find a compromise. What that means to me is that someone is just not working hard enough."

Kenny said she would support the tax initiative but added "whoever is doing the talking needs to back up and talk again."

"This is a labor town," she said.

Herrera, running for Congress, also rapped the company, focusing on the troublesome issue of health care coverage. Union workers have resisted any change in their health care package with ATC, but the company has said it cannot afford not to increase workers' contribution to the plan.

RTC General Manager Jacob Snow said his agency has pushed for both sides to come to the table, and agency officials were sharply disappointed when the union turned down the company's latest offer Saturday.

But service is improving, he said, and is generally back up to about 80 percent of pre-strike levels. That statement earned a few catcalls from the about two dozen drivers in the county commission chambers. The drivers argue that the service levels are still far below the pre-strike levels.

Drivers cheered Snow, however, when he said that hiring a new additional bus management company is an option for the RTC.

He said that option is not likely "with service improving every day" as the management company continues to hire, train and deploy replacement workers.

Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, who also serves as a Regional Transportation Commission board member, said the only chance to continue expanding the bus system -- which has not expanded since 1997 and this year was forced to cut back service because of fiscal woes -- is to pass the tax initiative.

"There really is no other money that local government has to put into the RTC ... unless this initiative is passed," he said. "People need to know the reality: If this ballot question does not pass, it can only be a disaster."

That disaster will affect not just the public, but all the union workers as well, he said.

Carter, with the drivers union, said members are disappointed with the commission's vote but will continue to focus on the initiative as a way to force the company back to the table.

"We expected it to happen," he said. "At least we got the point across that ATC is more involved in union busting that in trying to reach a settlement."

Carter said other unions will support the drivers.

"If they break one union, they can break another," he said.

The unions can provide thousands of workers to support or oppose the tax initiative this fall, Carter said.

ATC spokeswoman Valerie Michael said her company had no comment on the tax package, comments by the commissioners or the drivers' comments.

One of those supporting the ballot question was Nevada Department of Transportation Director Tom Stephens.

"If we don't do it, this place is going to go to gridlock," he said. "This is the only way. It's the 85 percent growth rate we've had in the Las Vegas Valley in the last 10 years."

Snow made similar arguments to the commission. He said the fresh infusion of tax dollars is needed to forestall Los Angeles-type street congestion within a decade.

The $2.7 billion also would help leverage projects that would bring in an estimated $3 billion of federal and state money, Snow and Stephens said.