Businesses pressure governor on roads

Friday, March 16, 2007 | 6:54 a.m.

With Clark County roads nearing congestive traffic failure, even supporters of Gov. Jim Gibbons, whose "no taxes" mantra so endeared him to business community voters last November, are starting to pressure the governor to figure out how to raise money for road construction.

In the words of Tim Cashman, a Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce government affairs committee member: "It's called leadership."

Cashman, former chamber chairman, spoke at the Rio on Thursday morning, addressing points from a report released by The Road Information Program, or TRIP, a nonprofit Washington group funded by construction, labor, highway and other transportation-related organizations.

The report, "Making the Grade in Nevada," gave the state an F for both funding and road safety, and a D for traffic congestion. It gave road conditions in the Las Vegas area a C. Las Vegas alone also received an F in safety and funding.

But the findings of the report are less important than the marriage of interests that brought it to light. The Chamber of Commerce invited - indeed, helped to spread - bad news about Las Vegas.

When that happens, primal forces are at work.

In this case, the Las Vegas business community was sending a signal to the governor at a time the Legislature is trying to close a gap between two realities: Gibbons' opposition to higher taxes, and the state's need for $3.8 billion more for road construction through 2015.

Without it, traffic gets worse - and that's bad for Las Vegas commerce.

"The Legislature and governor need to put this together, and put this together this session," Cashman said. "Because the longer we wait, the more difficult it's going to be. There's a lot of conversation and talk about taking the solution to the voters, but if we do that, that vote is two years away."

Without moving money from other state programs to highway construction, Cashman, who sat on a state task force to study long-range transportation issues, said increasing the gas tax at the rate of inflation is one task force proposal worth considering.

The state's current gas tax - dedicated to state highway repairs - is 17.65 cents per gallon. The tax was set in 1992. Had that tax increased at the inflation rate over the next 14 years, it currently would be about 26 cents per gallon.

The task force reported last year that Nevada already has one of the highest gasoline taxes in the country. Drivers in Clark County pay 53 cents per gallon in federal, state, mandatory county and optional county taxes.

Cashman said the state must find an additional $280 million per year, the amount it would pay for a 20-year bond to cover the $3.8 billion shortfall.

Without the road improvements, he predicted a slowing of the economy, which in turn would slow tax revenues, which would affect every other state-funded organization and program.

"The costs are never going to go down," he said. "And we have a lot of pressing needs in our community But none of those needs will be met if we hamper or slow down commerce in this community, because commerce creates the revenue that addresses the other needs in this state."

TRIP used the 427 traffic fatalities in Nevada in 2005 - a rate of 2.06 per 100 million vehicle-miles of travel, the seventh highest in the country - to give the state an F for safety. Using national estimates, Frank Moretti, TRIP's research director, said one-third of Nevada's traffic fatalities could be attributed to poor roadway safety features, including lanes that aren't wide enough, unpaved shoulders and a lack of rumble strips, which might snap distracted drivers back to attention as they veer off the road.

Moretti delivered a similar message in Northern Nevada late Thursday, with different grades: Reno/Carson City earned an F for road conditions, C for congestion, D for safety and, like Clark County, an F for funding.

The weeks ahead will determine whether Thursday's maneuver by the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce is effective.

As Cashman left the press conference, he told an aide: "If this gets any coverage at all, it'll set off some fireworks."