Goodman: Decision on medical center funds ‘huge setback’

Dan Kulin

Friday, June 3, 2005 | 11:09 a.m.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said state legislators' decision to provide $1.5 million for a proposed downtown academic medical center instead of the $25 million requested is a "huge setback," which pins the hopes of raising money in the near future on the private sector.

Goodman said the decision leaves city officials looking to the 2007 legislative session as their next chance to secure a large state contribution for the project.

"I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but that doesn't get us anywhere," Goodman said of the $1.5 million on a list of funding decisions legislative leaders agreed to Wednesday.

The mayor joked that if the $1.5 million was all the state provided for the project this session, which is scheduled to end Monday, "I would probably take it and bet it on the Lakers."

Without the higher amount of state funding this year, the proposed medical center will probably take longer to come to fruition, which Goodman said means the area will go longer without the advanced medical care in areas such as some organ transplants that the center is expected to offer.

"We've shown our commitment, now it's time for others to step up," Goodman said, referring to a plan that the city provide the land for the center for free.

Las Vegas Councilman Gary Reese said he was disappointed the medical center did not get more funding and agreed it was a setback. Reese said the project will take longer now, but added, "If it is to be, we'll find the money somehow."

Assemblyman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, who proposed the state provide $25 million for the project, also said getting $1.5 million for the project was a setback. Arberry said securing $25 million for the project would have shown the state's commitment to the proposed teaching hospital.

Also, if the $25 million had been approved, Arberry said he was hopeful it could have been used to help pay for the construction of the center within the next two years.

"I wanted construction to begin this biennium," said Arberry, who is chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

Arberry said he will push for funding for the project again in the 2007 Legislature.

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, vice chairwoman of the Ways and Means Committee, said she understands the frustration from the city's leaders, but said the request came too late in the session to be fully vetted by the legislators.

"I think there was generally support for it, but because it came out so late, it made it difficult to argue for a program people didn't know much about," she said.

Giunchigliani added that "if some pot of gold" is found during the last few days of the session, then maybe the matter could be revisited.

"But that's pretty doubtful," she said.

Ideally, the mayor was hoping legislators would provide $20 million a year for 10 years for the medical center, which is planned to be a teaching hospital anchored by an Alzheimer's research center. It is unclear exactly where other money for the $250 million center would come from, although private donations are expected to be part of the funding equation.

The medical center is one of several projects planned to be part of the development on the city-owned 61 acres of former railroad land on the western edge of downtown. Other proposed pieces of the development include a new City Hall, a performing arts center, residential and office high-rises, and possibly a baseball stadium.

When the Legislature convened in February, the only request for funding for the proposed center was $1.5 million that was part of the university regents' proposed budget. The University of Nevada School of Medicine is expected to play a major role in the project.

Goodman said city officials planned to wait until 2007 to make a formal request for substantial funding for the center. But the situation changed as negotiations with representatives from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center progressed.

City officials had been talking with representatives from the Pittsburgh center since at least November, but it wasn't until March or April that the talks reached a point at which Deputy City Manager Betsy Fretwell said they realized there was an opportunity to accelerate the plans for the center.

Pittsburgh officials have proposed that they run the center and essentially own the facility through a 99-year lease. The city is expected to provide the land for the facility for free.

Pittsburgh officials also proposed that the Pittsburgh center would pay the operating costs to run the facility and bear the risk of financial losses while also offering to share any profits.

"We realized that if we wanted to accelerate this project, we had an interested partner now who was willing to take the operational risk," Fretwell said. "So all things changed."

Fretwell, who oversees the city's lobbying team, said they began contacting legislators to see what could be done.

"If we rolled back the clock and had that synergy in August, we could have submitted a bill draft request," Fretwell said. "But the stars lined up when we didn't expect they would, during the session."

Fretwell said the $25 million, if it had been approved, would have sent a clear message to the Pittsburgh officials and potential private donors about the support the project had from state legislators.

A Pittsburgh center spokesman declined to comment for this story.

Exactly what the money would have been used for was not determined, but Fretwell said it would have probably paid for studies of financing and development plans.

"At the end of the day it would be a huge foundation for the academic medical center," Fretwell said. "If we had the money now it creates an opportunity during the next two years to get off the ground running."