Sales tax targeted as smog, traffic solution

Monday, May 6, 2002 | 11:10 a.m.

Exactly one month after county officials proposed changes to the smog check program, a Clark County commissioner said Friday the county instead will rely on an increase in the sales tax for money to reduce gridlock and clean the air.

Commissioner Chip Maxfield outlined a revised package of tax increases and adjustments that would provide the Regional Transportation Commission and county Air Quality Management Department with nearly $2.7 billion extra over 20 years.

The county had announced last month it would raise fees for smog tests but require the tests only every other year, a plan that was expected to provide $4.5 million a year for air quality programs but cost drivers less.

That plan was off the table as Maxfield, an RTC board member, spoke Friday in Mesquite to the American Public Works Association chapters of Nevada and southern Utah.

Instead, he said, the 7.25 percent county sales tax would increase by a fraction of a percent every year until 2025, to a total of 7.5 percent, with the bulk of the money going to transportation. Other sources of extra revenue would be an added fee on new homes, an inflation index on the gasoline tax and a 1-cent jet fuel tax.

County commissioners would have to budget extra money for the air quality programs out of that pot or other sources because money would no longer earmarked from the smog program, Maxfield said.

The shift away from changes in the smog checks occurred after the county realized that it could not assure the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which must approve such changes, that air quality would not suffer, officials said.

Maxfield, a civil engineer, received a sympathetic hearing from the crowd of about 120 people, mostly construction contractors and public works officials from the region.

He told the group that the entire package of tax increases, approved by the RTC in February but fine-tuned since then, is needed to stem growing gridlock on the Las Vegas Valley's streets and highways.

County officials are pushing to get the package of tax changes on the November ballot for an advisory vote, although the final decision will be made by the Legislature.

The RTC board is scheduled to consider the changes to the package May 16.

"We would hope you would understand the needs in the valley," Maxfield told the group after showing film clips and computer models of growing traffic congestion.

"If we don't do something about it, we're going to have total gridlock," he told the group.

Because of health concerns and a federal mandate, the region also must do something about air quality. The smog check revision, formally announced at an April 3 press conference to extensive media coverage, was supposed to pay for air quality programs.

The government portion of the smog test charge, now capped by the state at about $31, would have gone from $5 to $22.

The change represented a trade-off for car owners: They would pay more to have their exhaust system tested, but they would do so only every other year.

Christine Robinson, director of Clark County Air Quality Management, said the staff recommendation to delete the smog check changes from the tax package sprang from the complex responsibilities the agency has to the EPA.

"We still had questions that we need answered by the EPA before we can go to a biennial program," Robinson said.

Robinson repeated her earlier conviction that the change to a smog check every other year would have minimal effect on the environment, but she said not all of the information could be assembled before the ballot question would be written.

"We think moving to a biannual program is a good idea, but it requires further investigation," Robinson said. "We are going to answer those questions."

Robinson said she does not fear that her department will fail to receive the money it needs to expand programs.

"We are working closely with the RTC to determine which funds would most appropriately be dedicated to the air quality department in lieu of the proposed smog check increase," she said.