"Las Vegas’s economic recovery doesn’t extend to its neighbor" by James Nash | Bloomberg News, June 15, 2012
NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. - North Las Vegas, the fastest-growing large city in the US just five years ago, is on the verge of insolvency. Facing a $33 million budget gap, elected leaders this month declared a state of emergency and gave the city manager unprecedented powers to suspend union contracts.
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Even as the largest US casino market charted a modest
recovery from the recession, North Las Vegas is saddled with the
consequences of a “false economy’’ based on ever-growing homebuilding,
city manager Tim Hacker said.
We all have been.
Property values last year were half of
what they were in 2007. One in every 216 homes was in foreclosure in
April, three times the national rate, says RealtyTrac Inc. in Irvine,
Calif.
The city fell victim to its own shortsightedness, said Jeff Hurley, president of North Las Vegas Firefighters Local 1607, one of the unions that rejected the city’s latest demands for concessions and is challenging the emergency powers.
“We’ve had foreclosure issues here,’’ Hurley said. “And they’re still spending $130 million on a new City Hall. They just kept trucking along. There were a lot of alternative solutions. The constant has been to attack the city employees as if they’re the problems.’’
It's the SAME ALL OVER THE COUNTRY! Cops and firefighters are heroes until they ask for collective bargaining rights, while the banks that fraudulently seized homes gets to keep 'em and may a chump change fine.
North Las Vegas is about 100 square miles of block-by-block contrasts. City Hall overlooks gas stations, discount stores, and a casino advertising $1 beer, a $2 “delicious’’ lunch, $3 blackjack games, and free check-cashing.
Gambling, Nevada’s signature industry, has rebounded on the Strip, where gaming revenue rose 6.6 percent for the year ending March 31, according to the State Gaming Control Board. In North Las Vegas, gambling revenue fell by 0.35 percent in the same period.
Just north of City Hall and the Silver Nugget Casino are bungalows with barred doors and windows. Beyond, abutting treeless mountains, are master-planned communities with names like Aliante and Eldorado that blossomed during the housing boom of the past decade.
With growth promising more tax revenue, the city’s payroll rose from 1,706 jobs in 2005 to 2,159 in 2007, said Juliet Casey, a city spokeswoman. Multiyear labor contracts promised annual wage increases, according to a Fitch Ratings report. City leaders embarked on projects such as a water reclamation facility initially estimated to cost more than $300 million.
Ever notice CEO or credit default swap contracts must always be honored?
Development on the suburban fringe of the city drew attention away from poverty in the central and southern sections of town, said Robert Lang, who teaches urban affairs at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
On May 25, Fitch Ratings cut North Las Vegas’s general-obligation debt to two steps above junk, citing the city’s “severe fiscal distress.’’
Thanks for the help.
Btw, Fitch one of the liars that branded all the mortgage-backed securities turds as AAA to help Wall Street dump them on all of us.
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Remember, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
