Tax hike backed to help homeless

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Tuesday, May 21, 2002 | 9:14 a.m.

The Homelessness Task Force voted Monday to support a one-cent property tax increase that would go into a trust fund for helping end homelessness in Southern Nevada.

The increase of one cent per $100 assessed value would add about $3.50 in taxes per year for a home worth $100,000. All told, the proposal could raise as much as $4 million per year for affordable housing and other services for the homeless in the Las Vegas Valley, issues being addressed by a five-point plan the task force is developing.

"Many people give this kind of money to beggars in the street, who may spend it on alcohol, cigarettes and what have you," said Douglas Bell, community resources management director for Clark County, in presenting the proposal to the task force.

"The advantage here is that the money would go to service providers and people who can really help the homeless."

The tax increase proposal will now go to the technical committee of the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition and then the coalition itself, as well as the Clark County Commission. If approved, the proposal must then be submitted to the Clark County Registrar of Voters by July 1 for it to be placed on the November ballot. If the public votes for the idea, it must then be approved by the 2003 Legislature.

"The tragedy would be if the voters didn't support the idea," Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, chairman of the task force, said.

Goodman recalled how Henderson voted down a tax increase to increase police and fire department personnel in 2001.

The proposal's approval came after a discussion on how the board governing the trust fund should be structured. A conflict has grown in recent task force meetings, after approving a board that would include elected officials, nonprofits and businesses.

Several task force members have argued that any public funds helping to end homelessness should be controlled only by public officials.

Stephanie Smith, North Las Vegas Councilwoman and a task force member, repeated this position when assessing the tax increase proposal.

"I definitely do not support the idea of taxpayers' money going into the hands of non-elected officials," she said.

The task force then voted 8-1 to change the trust fund's board to elected officials only.

Rev. Charles Bowker, of the Reformation Lutheran Church and also a task force member, was the lone dissenting vote.