Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

North Las Vegas still runs its own show, for now

North Las Vegas City Hall

Justin M. Bowen

North Las Vegas City Hall is shown in July.

A state finance board, incredulous that North Las Vegas was on the hook for employee pay raises despite its beleaguered financial outlook, expressed grave concerns today about the city’s fiscal health but decided the city can still make its own financial decisions.

Members of the Committee on Local Government Finance said North Las Vegas faces both immediate and long-term budget problems.

The once-booming city is projected to come up $39 million short of meeting its expenses in two years, based on financial assumptions that the state’s former budget director warned were too optimistic.

The city also faces a more immediate problem — having enough cash on hand to pay employees and pay its other bills.

“It scares me when you look at it,” Chairman Marvin Leavitt, who has served for more than 25 years on the state board, told North Las Vegas officials. The city is within months of running out of cash and “you have to do something fairly quickly to solve this problem.”

The city has to cut $8.6 million from the current budget to abide by court decisions that have at least temporarily blocked police and firefighters from getting laid off. Al Noyola, the interim finance director, said the North Las Vegas City Council will make decisions within two weeks, and have the plan implemented by Sept. 30. The upcoming plan would include layoffs, though Noyola did not say how many. He said the City Council has rejected a proposal to raise property taxes.

Some elected officials outside of the City Council have warned the state could take over the city’s finances or the city could end up disappearing entirely as a political entity. North Las Vegas has the highest property taxes in Clark County and its public employee unions have resisted concessions on contracts. On top of that, it has recently completed projects such as a new city hall and wastewater treatment plant started during the boom times.

North Las Vegas officials have acknowledged the city’s difficult path, but have expressed confidence that the city would weather the storm. It did not appear any North Las Vegas council members attended the meeting, which was teleconferenced in Carson City and Las Vegas.

North Las Vegas has been tapping reserves and one-time transfers from other funds to balance its budget over the past three years, according to the budget presentation. That included about $45 million in one-time transfers and draining $38 million in its fund balance since 2008.

State officials expressed surprise that employee contracts extending through 2014 and 2015 include raises.

Employee costs will go up $10 million in 2013 and $17 million in 2014.

“You’re going to be giving (cost-of-living adjustments) to employees in the next few years?” asked Mary Walker, a member of the committee.

“Under current agreements, yes,” Noyola said.

Firefighters are scheduled to get a 5.75 percent cost-of-living increase in 2013, and a 4 percent increase in 2014, he said. North Las Vegas police officers are scheduled to get a 1.125 percent increase in January, and a 5.5 percent increase in 2013.

Employees represented by the Teamsters union are scheduled to get no cost-of-living increase in 2013, and a 2.3 percent increase in 2014.

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