Henderson budget hits $351 million

Jeffrey Libby

Wednesday, May 22, 2002 | 9:23 a.m.

A planned centerpiece for Henderson's city parks, its plaza tents now plainly visible south of Interstate 215, was among $44 million in construction projects approved Tuesday by the Henderson City Council, bumping the city budget to $351 million.

The largest portion of construction money -- $23.7 million -- went to the third phase of a $65 million expansion of City Hall. It's a project that will quadruple the size of City Hall and should reflect Henderson's growing political power in the Las Vegas Valley, architects say.

But Mayor Jim Gibson talked more of pragmatics.

"It will save us money first of all. We'll save $600,000 to $800,000 a year on rentals and leases" the city will no longer need for office space, Gibson said. "What we need is a place where people can come to work. A cohesiveness."

The City Hall expansion and other capital projects accounted in large part for the 18 percent increase from last year's budget of $298 million.

But 69 new hires, mostly for public safety and for parks and recreation, added another $4.7 million to payroll, pushing total payroll to $101.3 million for 1,846 full-time employees. The new fiscal year begins July 1.

The new hires represent a 3.8 percent increase in employees. The population, however, is projected to grow by 7.2 percent, from 196,780 last year to 210,850 as of July 1.

Despite the increase in city spending, property tax rates remained flat, as they have for the past 12 years. The rates are lower than those in Las Vegas and North Las Vegas.

Owners of a $100,000 home, for example, will pay the city $249 in property taxes. They will pay another $750 in property taxes to Clark County, the Clark County School District, the library district and the state. The same homeowners in Las Vegas would pay city property taxes of about $375. In North Las Vegas, they would pay about $420.

The Henderson Promenade Special Events Plaza, which will host Shakespeare in the Park at a 3,000-seat amphitheater, received a portion of $10.6 million. Part of that money also went to a multi-generational park facility on the same 36-acre campus at I-215 and Green Valley Parkway. The total project is budgeted at $28 million.

The Parks and Recreation Department also hired 17 new employees to staff the new facility, due to open in August, with money approved as part of a $56 million park bond initiative approved by voters in 1997.

The Public Works Department gained five employees through the same 1997 bond.

The council approved 17 new hires for the police department with money from the general fund. That pushed police payroll to $55.7 million, or 55 percent of total payroll -- one of the largest jumps for any department, Richard Derrick, city budget manager, said.