Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2005 | 10:53 a.m.
A new performing arts center for Las Vegas moved a step closer to reality Tuesday as the Clark County Commission approved a new tax on car rentals.
The commission, following testimonials from supporters and a handful of opponents from the rental-car industry, passed the 2 percent tax with a 7-0 vote.
The vote, however, is contingent on the Legislature this year cleaning up the language of a law that paves the way for the tax, which won't be implemented until the Legislature acts.
The first $3 million of revenue from the tax, which amounts to $1 on a $50 rental charge, will go to support expansion of the Culinary Union training academy in North Las Vegas. Money above the $3 million will go toward paying off bonds expected to be issued by the Las Vegas Performing Arts Center Foundation.
The foundation expects to build the center on a portion of 61 acres in downtown Las Vegas controlled by the city government. The car rental tax would generate an estimated $4 million to $5 million annually, bringing money to the arts center foundation within a year.
The tax would apply mostly to visitors. Locals looking to rent a replacement car for a short period would receive a waiver from the tax.
Don Snyder, Boyd Gaming Group president and foundation chairman, led a group of well-known local residents to ask the commission for its support of the tax. He said that because of the planned performing arts center, "Broadway has never been so threatened," and repeated the group's slogan: "Our city is ready to dance."
He said Las Vegas is the largest community in the country without a full performing arts center.
Among those also speaking for the rental tax were Las Vegas-based performer Clint Holmes; cardiologist and performing arts center foundation executive committee member Dr. Keith Boman; and MGM Mirage President Jim Murren.
Cox Communications Vice President Steve Schorr spoke in support of the tax both for the arts center and for the culinary training academy. Academy graduates working in the kitchens of the region's resorts also spoke for the program.
Supporters crowded the commission chambers for discussion of the tax, but opponents attended the meeting as well.
Bernie Kaufman, president of the Nevada Car Rental Association, said he is not opposed to the culinary union training academy or a performing arts center.
"I am for this academy. I am for the arts. We need it. Our community needs it," Kaufman said. But for the car rental industry in Las Vegas, which will be paying off a new $150 million car rental center at McCarran International Airport for the next 20 years, "we can't afford it."
"This should be a community affair and funded by the community," he said. "I don't think it should come strictly from car rentals."
Kaufman said 37 percent of the cost of a car rental now comes from taxes. The amount would go up to more than 39 percent with the tax increase, he said.
Corey Jenkins, president of Las Vegas' SavMor Rent A Car, agreed.
"I just don't think its fair for just one industry to pay for a performing arts center."
Commissioners were generally sympathetic.
Commissioner Tom Collins, who left the Assembly to take the county office this year, noted that the Legislature has turned to car rental taxes before.
"We use the car rental agencies as an instrument to balance our budget. We've used them for other things as well," he said.
A different kind of tax would make more sense, Collins said, to "find a broader base so we can find a more firm funding source than taxing one industry."
Commissioner Myrna Williams also expressed some concerns.
"I have some deep philosophical problems with the way this is funded," she said. "They (the Legislature) took the easy way out."
But Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates said the performing arts center was too badly needed in Las Vegas. She said people too often only see Las Vegas as a gambling town.
Atkinson Gates compared Las Vegas 37 percent tax rate on car rentals to other cities, including San Francisco's 48 percent, Phoenix's 45 pecent and Dallas' 49 percent.
Atkinson Gates' daughter, the commissioner said, is practicing piano, and needs a place to play when she gets older.
"We are ready to dance," Atkinson Gates said.
In the end the commission voted 7-0 to support the tax -- but they also agreed that some "fixes" to the authorizing legislation, which passed in 2003, have to come from Carson City in this session of the Legislature.
The entity receiving the funds from the car rental tax would be the Clark County government, which according to county staffers has no interest at all in designing, building or running a performing arts center. Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, has said she would submit legislation to identify the performing arts center foundation as the recipient of the rental tax revenue.
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