Hosford’s bill SB 352 is headed for the Assembly Government Affairs committee on May 7th.
The Bill originally would create a state board to make recommendations about how North Las Vegas should improve its infrastructure. The bill has been amended so that it no longer refers specifically to North Las Vegas. Now the bill’s language refers to the "Southern Nevada Enterprise Community," a Clinton-era designation for certain areas in Las Vegas and North Las Vegas which were eligible for certain kinds of grants and loans.
On
December 21, 1994, President Clinton designated nine census tracts in
the urban core of the Las Vegas valley as an "Enterprise Community." In
conjunction with this announcement, Enterprise Community moneys were
allocated for a Loan Guarantee Program to be used as a guarantee fund
for loans to small businesses in the Enterprise Community area. Loans
are available for a variety of purposes with loan sizes of $5,000 to
$100,000. As part of the eligibility requirements businesses must be
located within the designated Enterprise Community census tracts. (NCDE)
The other change is in who would serve on the board. Originally board members would have been selected by the Nevada Assembly, Senate, and the Governor’s office. Now members would be selected as follows:
- one would be one of Nevada’s Congresspeople, or a designee,
- one would be the State Senator for the district, or a designee,
- one from, or selected by, the Clark County Commission,
- one from, or picked by, the Las Vegas City Council,
- one from, or picked by, the North Las Vegas City Council,
- two residents selected by the Clark County Commission, Las Vegas City Council, and the North Las Vegas City Council,
- a representative picked by the Chamber of Commerce,
- a representative from a nonprofit. educational and/or religious organization from the community.
Number 2 assures Horsford, or his appointee, a seat on the board, since he’s the State Senator for the area.
It’s not clear what good such a board would do, and it looks like it simply creates another layer of government without any real benefit. And it’s not clear in what sense the Southern Nevada Enterprise Community exists as a meaningful community. Granted North Las Vegas has not been too kind to that part of the city, but it seems unlikely that viewing the area as part of an artificial construct of the federal government will solve any problems, especially since that Clinton money is long gone.
Two North Las Vegas assemblypeople sit on the Government Affairs Committee, Kelvin Atkinson, and Marilyn Kirkpatrick is chair. I’m sure they’d love to hear from you about this. Here’s the membership of the committee with email addresses:
- Marilyn Kirkpatrick – Chair
- Peggy Pierce – Vice Chair
- Kelvin Atkinson
- David Bobzien
- Jerry Claborn
- Ruben Kihuen
- Harvey Munford
- Bonnie Parnell
- RoseMary Womack
- Bob Beers
- Chad Christensen
- Pete Goicoechea
- James Settelmeyer
- Lynn Stewart
Richard Cherchio, who recently ran for the Ward 4 council seat, has a few questions about the bill, too, on what still looks quite a bit like a campaign website.
You can listen to the hearing on May 7th over on the Nevada Legislature website, or take a poll on SB 352.
Recent Comments