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Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2010 | 1:50 a.m.
Sun Coverage
- Mob Museum gets $500,000 grant (7-30-2010)
- City approves $7.1 million for mob museum exhibits (7-7-2010)
- City council accepts $300,000 more for downtown mob museum (6-16-2010)
- Union: City spending too much on mob museum (5-25-2010)
- Goodman tours mob museum, says ‘there is no competition’ (5-25-2010)
- Downtown Mob Museum set up to be self-supporting (4-21-2010)
- Downtown museum to tell story of mob in Las Vegas, elsewhere (3-25-2010)
CARSON CITY – The so-called Mob Museum won't be getting a grant it was counting on because of the state’s budget crisis.
The state Commission for Cultural Affairs in March awarded $3 million in grants to 23 projects to preserve historic buildings.
State Historic Preservation Officer Ron James said Monday the bonds to help finance those projects won't be issued. He said project organizers would be notified this week they won’t be getting the state money.
The state canceled issuance of the bonds because of a shortage of money to pay them off.
The state commission awarded $220,000 in March to the Mob Museum, the single biggest amount of any project. Officials from the Mob Museum and Neon Museum told the commission in March this would be the last time they would request money from the state.
Since 1993 the state has issued $3 million a year in bonds for historic projects. The Legislature renews the program every 10 years and it was due to expire in 2014. But the state doesn’t have the money to pay off the bonds that were approved in March.
“Since 1993 we have saved a lot of buildings,” James said. “It’s a sad day.”
Other grants included $150,000 for work on the Railroad Cottages, a group of historic buildings in Henderson, and $75,000 to the Neon Museum in Las Vegas.
The commission had approved $40,000 for Mesquite to turn the gymnasium at its high school into an all-purpose room.
Grants of $200,000 each were allocated to the Oak Park School in Fallon, the Pioneer Hotel Building in Elko and the Thunderbird Lodge at the south end of Lake Tahoe.
The museum, which is expected to cost about $42 million to construct, is being funded through a variety of sources: local, state and federal grants, matching grants and the city's redevelopment agency.
I disagree with Ron James. It's not a sad day; it's a good day. A good day anytime elected and/or unelected bureaucrats understand that taxpayer dollars are finite - not an endless pit for them to throw at every pet project that comes along. You & I have to make financial decisions every day to remain solvent. Government is no different.
I agree with Tony.
Tax the church. After all, every corrupt organized religion is involved in politics and they own the wacky right wing. The Mormons should be the first to be taxed. Look what they did to California's Prop 8. They funded a message of hate. Tax em.
Tony and Caroll are right: the Tea Partiers and the once-existent Republican party want cuts, but don't want to suffer for them. LVFacts, here's your site: https://www.pay.gov/paygov/forms/formIns.... You can go there directly and donate to reduce the public debt. Of course, you won't go there; nor will the others who wouldn't know the facts, or their responsibilities as citizens, even if their heroine Sarah Palin tweeted them. So, lvfacts, why don't you just go back into your hole at the R-J editorial page?
I would expect to see more cutting of non-essential grants in the coming year. If this is such an important part of LV history then private donations can pick up the tab. Government is going to have to prioritize on what to spend money on and this aint it.
Exactly what the Mob Museum has to do with churches being tax exempt escapes me. I want less government spending, not more. It appears Green wants more. So Green is the one who should open his wallet to bureaucrats who want to do his thinking for him.