Columnist Jeff German: Casinos slow to help arts center

Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2003 | 11:13 a.m.

It has taken a while, but gaming-led civic leaders have figured out that Las Vegas needs more culture if it wants to diversify its economy and attract more businesses.

And so they are pushing hard to build a world-class performing arts center downtown to demonstrate this newly discovered importance of culture.

The campaign is being coordinated by the Las Vegas Performing Arts Center Foundation -- a nonprofit organization dominated by such casino industry heavyweights as Don Snyder of Boyd Gaming, Gary Jacobs of MGM MIRAGE and Jan Laverty Jones of Harrah's Entertainment.

With the billions of dollars in revenue the industry takes in every year, you would think it would be easy for gaming to foot the bill for the $125 million project.

But that isn't happening.

The Performing Arts Center Foundation got the city of Las Vegas to donate five acres of prime downtown real estate to the project, and it persuaded the Legislature to finance the project's construction, not with a hike in the casino room tax, but with a hike in the car rental tax.

Rather than assuming responsibility for bankrolling the project, the industry has found a way to pass it off to the car rental agencies which, unlike gaming, already are heavily taxed and naturally opposed to the hike.

The final word on the tax increase rests with the Clark County Commission, which isn't exactly jumping at a chance to raise taxes, given the nightmare the Legislature went through this past summer.

The foundation wants the commission to approve the 2 percent hike, which will generate up to $5 million a year for at least 20 years, so it can start raising roughly $60 million from private business to supplement the project.

Snyder insists the casino industry will be contributing its share to the private endowment, which will be used primarily to help with operating costs once the performing arts center is built.

But so far, the foundation hasn't demonstrated that gaming is ready to step up to the plate. It hasn't given us any commitments at all from casino companies.

It also hasn't developed an architectural plan to show us what the performing arts center will look like, and it hasn't put together a business plan to tell us what the center will do for the community. Yet the foundation wants the county and the car rental industry to come up with millions of dollars to jump-start the project.

You can't blame county commissioners for being skeptical about throwing public money at the performing arts center. Commissioners might end up throwing that money away if it turns out the foundation's game plan isn't economically feasible.

At the same time, Snyder and company at least deserve credit for showing leadership in this endeavor. I see few people from the rest of the business world trying to make it happen.

Still, it seems to me that the casino industry, which has profited so much from this community over the years, ought to make a stronger commitment with its own pocketbook before expecting the public and other businesses to support the project.