Businesses disappoint Guinn

Friday, March 29, 2002 | 11:23 a.m.

Gov. Kenny Guinn said he's "disappointed" with the response of the Nevada business community to his calls for more funds to fight the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

"I wish the businesses would step up to the plate," Guinn said. "We need to bring as much financial resources as we can to help Sen. (John) Ensign and Sen. (Harry) Reid in their battle to collect 51 votes to sustain my veto of the president."

But some businesses haven't been contacted or lobbied by anti-Yucca forces, calling into question the effectiveness of the state's public relations campaign against the nuclear waste dumping plan.

Officials with some businesses and industries say they would consider contributing to the anti-Yucca campaign, but point out they have not been contacted about the issue by Guinn or other government leaders.

A spokeswoman for Las Vegas medical industry giant Sierra Health Services Inc., for example, said Thursday her company has not taken a position on Yucca Mountain but its executives would consider funding efforts if approached by the governor.

"We've been focused on health care issues of late, but the Yucca Mountain issue is important to us and will be addressed," said Jenny DesVaux Oakes, assistant vice president for Sierra Health Services.

Southern Nevada car dealerships also haven't organized to contribute money to the cause.

Tyler Corder, chief financial officer of the Findlay Auto Group, which includes eight Southern Nevada dealerships with four more in Utah and Arizona, said the Yucca Mountain debate hasn't reached dealers' corporate board rooms.

"I doubt that individual dealerships would contribute money," Corder said. "It's probably something that should be taken up by the Nevada Franchise Auto Dealers Association. It's not something that Cliff Findlay and I have discussed. It's a little out of our sphere of expertise. We have some opinions individually, but there's been no corporate policy yet."

Corder said public officials seeking financial support could probably help their case if they came to the dealers and told them specifically how the businesses could help.

If businesses haven't been contacted yet, it's likely they will in the next several weeks. Mark Brown, whose Las Vegas firm was contracted to handle public relations for the anti-Yucca fight, today said the pace of fund-raising efforts will be stepped up substantially in the next several weeks.

In addition to a public call to all Nevadans for funds, direct appeals will be made to Nevada businessmen and businesswomen, Brown said. Guinn, Reid and Ensign will participate in those efforts, as will former state leaders, such as former Sen. Richard Bryan.

"There's no doubt in my mind that people will step up to support this effort," Brown said.

But with the clock running out, why not start earlier?

"Before you can ask people to donate to a cause, they have to understand where the money's going to be spent," Brown said. "We now have a better understanding of what our target states are, how to communicate to those states, and have refined our legal strategy. Those two efforts are what someone would be contributing to."

Guinn plans to veto the president's recommendation of Yucca Mountain by April 15. That would send the battle to Congress, which could override Guinn's veto. The House of Representatives is expected to do so easily, leaving the Senate as the one ray of hope for blocking Yucca. This Senate vote may happen this summer.

To assist in this effort, Guinn, Reid and Ensign have proposed a $10 million national advertising and grass-roots organizing campaign. But with thoughts of a special legislative session on Yucca now dying -- and with the anti-Yucca Nevada Protection Fund nearly tapped -- new funds must come from somewhere. The three have hoped Nevada businesses would be a source.

The state's gaming industry pitched in $750,000 through the American Gaming Association and the Nevada Resort Association earlier this year. When contacted by the Las Vegas Sun, Park Place Entertainment Corp. and Station Casinos Inc. both indicated Thursday they would at least consider contributing more if contacted by the governor or other officials.

"We're going to be working with the governor and other elected officials to determine how we can best be useful in this effort," said Robert Stewart, spokesman for Park Place. "We're committed to doing everything we can to prevent the federal government from turning Nevada into the nation's nuclear waste dump."

But there's also some annoyance running through the gaming community. In their view, casino companies have been the largest contributors so far to Yucca, and many feel it's time other companies and other industries pitched in.

"I think gaming has done a great job of stepping up," said Lesley Pittman, spokeswoman for Station Casinos Inc., which donated $50,000 directly to the Nevada Protection Fund in January. "We will certainly consider more funds, but in the mean time, we'd like to see the rest of the business community step up."

"It would be about time that the business community, most of which pays no taxes in this state, would at least participate by making a substantial contribution to Yucca Mountain," said Alan Feldman, spokesman for MGM MIRAGE. "Consider that the banking industry alone makes as much money in Nevada as the gaming companies, yet they pay no state taxes. They should be at least matching what the gaming industry is doing, and one would think they'd be able to afford much more, since they don't pay any taxes."

Non-gaming businesses contacted by the Sun this week were all over the map when asked if they would donate to the Yucca fight or if they supported the proposal for a special legislative session to appropriate more public money for the anti-Yucca fight.

In most cases, two events on the Yucca issue this week haven't prompted companies to donate to the fight or increase their planned donation. Those events were the release of a poll conducted for the Sun showing strong public support for the special legislative session and a Wednesday news conference in which Guinn, Reid and Ensign sought more support for the fight.

Businesses contacted

For example a spokesman for the Howard Hughes Corp., developer of the massive Summerlin master planned community, said Thursday his company is working with local leaders to shape its corporate approach toward Yucca Mountain.

Hughes publicly opposed the prospect of transporting nuclear waste through the Las Vegas Valley in a January 2000 hearing conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy. Despite that action, the developer has not yet committed money toward the state's anti-Yucca campaign, although its executives plan to discuss such action at an unspecified date, said Tom Warden, vice president of marketing and community relations.

Also:

Jim Petty, president of Air Vegas, the No. 2 Grand Canyon air tour operator operating in Southern Nevada, said his company is still recovering from the tourism downturn that occurred after the terrorist attacks Sept. 11.

"We're still in survival mode at this point," Petty said. "From Air Vegas' point of view, we have no funds available to contribute to the fight."

Petty isn't convinced that the kind of fight lawmakers are envisioning will succeed. Like some business people, he thinks Nevada should consider working toward being compensated for accommodating nuclear waste. Shipments to Nevada appear to be inevitable, he said, so tourism businesses may eventually have to change their tune to assure guests that they'll be safe despite the shipments.

Steve Schorr, a local vice president for Atlanta-based Cox Communications Inc., said his company already has pledged to present public service announcements about transporting nuclear waste on Cox cable systems in the Southwest.

"We have already notified our congressional delegation that we are committed to provide them PSA (public service announcement) time to put together a spot related to their position on the dangers of transporting nuclear waste," Schorr said.

The company has promised a minimum of $10,000 worth of time on the Las Vegas cable system alone. Schorr said affiliated Cox companies in Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz., and San Diego, Orange County and Santa Barbara, Calif., also would show the spots.

While Cox doesn't have production facilities to create a spot, the company would be willing to run whatever commercial the lawmakers come up with, Schorr said.

The Greenspun family, owner of the Las Vegas Sun, is a minority investor in Cox's Las Vegas system.

"It's a decision the governor makes, and whatever he decides, we'll support it. It's up to him. He's the governor, and we respect him," said Joanne Levy, president of the 6,500-member Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, which last week donated $20,000 to the $4 million fund the Legislature earmarked to fight Yucca Mountain.

"What (events this week) have done is brought more to the forefront that we'll have discussions about in the very near future," said Rod Martin, NAIOP's president. "As far as having any official position, as of yet, we don't. It's just a function of needing to get together and seeing where the board of the organization goes with it."

"I seriously doubt we'd spend shareholders' money to fund what is essentially a public relations campaign," Hulin said. "I'd rather see (elected officials) take the proposed $10 million from the state or $3 million from the county and spend those funds on fixing the homeless problem or funding education. ... With all the state's budget problems, it seems a little silly to pour all that money down a rat hole."

"I was always told once I got in a fight, don't stop swinging because if you lose, you still know you gave it the absolute best fight," said Bill Martin, chairman, president and CEO of the bank, a subsidiary of Salt Lake City-based Zions Bancorporation. "If the people want to stay in the fight (against Yucca), then you ought to spend the money.

"You can't (fight Yucca) on moral persuasion; you're going to need some money to finance an effort. ... The polls I've seen show a heavy majority of Nevadans don't want (nuclear waste stored at Yucca Mountain), so I think (Guinn) would be spending the people's money for what the people want," said Martin, whose bank is the third largest in Nevada with assets of more than $2.5 billion.

"Actually, I think they ought to kill two birds with one stone on this and tackle the malpractice insurance issue at the same time," Bell said. "It seems to me those are two pressing matters that could be solved at the same time."

"I think the people of the state of Nevada and our government leaders should do everything and anything needed to help defeat and keep the dump from Nevada," Ruvo said.

archive