LV council OKs another $50,000 for Yucca fight

Diana Sahagun

Wednesday, May 1, 2002 | 11:06 a.m.

The Las Vegas City Council voted this morning to send an additional $50,000 toward the state's fight to keep high-level nuclear waste from coming to Nevada.

Facing a budget shortfall, the council unanimously decided this morning to add another $50,000 to the fight against Yucca Mountain. The money is earmarked to help pay for a national advertising campaign. The city has already committed $100,000.

Mayor Oscar Goodman proposed contributing an additional $50,000, taking the opportunity to slam Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and John Sununu, a Yucca Mountain project lobbyist.

"I think (Abraham's) a fathead and I hope he reads about it, because I feel he breached his trust as a secretary of energy in behaving the way he did," Goodman said. "It's my personal view that Sununu is a prostitute and I want that word to get back to him because he fought to keep nuke waste from coming to his state, and now he's saying Nevadans are bad citizens because they won't accept it here."

The additional $50,000 will come from the city's general fund. The original $100,000 donation will come from the council's discretionary fund which is used for parks, recreation centers and other one-time expenditures. The council had proposed funding $89 million worth of park projects next fiscal year, but there is only $29 million available.

Mark Vincent, the city's finance director, has projected a $1 million deficit in next year's fiscal budget, which begins July 1.

While the original donation had been earmarked from next year's fiscal budget, the council Wednesday opted to send both contributions out of the current budget, which was augmented during the meeting, so the state receives the money immediately.

The clock is ticking for state leaders to convince officials around the U.S. that high-level nuclear waste should not be shipped to Nevada, because of the dangers of transportation.

Congress is expected to make a decision by the end of July.

Nevada has a $6 million fund to cover lobbying and legal expenses relating to fighting the proposed dump, but state leaders say they need more money to fight the nuclear energy's powerful lobbying efforts.

Gov. Kenny Guinn and Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev. and John Ensign, R-Nev. have called on public, private and government contributions to help the state's lobbying effort against the dump.

A legislative committee agreed to give $3 million as long as governments matched the donations.

Clark County has pledged a combined $2.5 million, North Las Vegas $10,000, and Henderson $50,000.

A number of Nevada towns and businesses have also given, including the tiny city of Wells, which offered $1,367. Mesquite, about 90 miles northeast of Las Vegas, gave $50,000.