Highway plan roughed out

CARSON CITY -- Nevada lawmakers rolled out a new highway construction funding plan Saturday that would generate about $2 billion by 2015, covering part of a shortfall in revenue for state road projects.

Sen. John Lee, D-North Las Vegas, said he and state Senate Transportation Chairman Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, have been discussing the plan with business and casino industry representatives and are working to get Assembly support.

"We're trying to make it a legislative plan, and not just a Senate plan," said Lee, adding that he also discussed the proposal with Gov. Jim Gibbons and "didn't feel any resistance. But there wasn't a 100 percent commitment either."

The latest transportation funding measure is separate from one that Assemblyman Garn Mabey, R-Las Vegas, the Assembly's Republican leader, has said he will introduce for Gibbons. That proposal would fund road projects by diverting entertainment, room and vehicles sales taxes.

Lee confirmed that the plan that he and Nolan are pushing would include a 4-cent increase in the diesel fuel tax. While Gibbons has opposed any higher taxes, Lee said there's trucking industry support for the 4-cent boost.

Other elements of the plan include a 1 percent diversion of rental car taxes, and a diversion of 3 cents per $100 of assessed valuation in property taxes collected by local governments, but that wouldn't be diverted until 2008.

The Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Authority would kick in $20 million a year, using funds generated by a bond issue. Bonds would be paid off using room tax revenues.

Both the legislative proposal and Gibbons' plan fall below an expected shortfall of at least $5 billion for highway funding by 2015.

The governor's plan would reallocate about $424 million a year from Las Vegas-area room taxes, and $360 million a year from vehicle sales taxes and live entertainment taxes.