Authority to Revise Budget After Windfall

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board on Tuesday approved plans to revise its current fiscal year budget to take advantage of $25 million in additional room-tax revenue.

When its fiscal 2005 budget was approved last spring, the authority expected to receive approximately $146 million in taxes from guests of Clark County lodging establishments whose stays occurred between July 1, 2004, and June 30.Advertisement

But better-than-expected visitor volume and room rates produced added revenue, and the authority now expects to collect $171 million in room taxes this year.

The updated budget calls for an extra $2.5 million for advertising in three U.S. cities; $5.6 million toward the authority's capital improvement fund; as well as a more than $944,000 payment to reduce long-term debt.

The board also got an advance peek at the authority's tentative budget for fiscal 2006. That document, which will be filed publicly Friday, projects room tax revenue of $183 million; $38.3 million in income from the Las Vegas Convention Center and Cashman Center; and $6.5 million from other sources.

Projected expenditures total $187.5 million, up 3 percent from the current fiscal year.

Brenda Siddall, the convention authority's finance director, also said the authority's bond ratings were recently upgraded by both Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's.

Thanks in part to those changes, last month's issuance of $160 million in refunding bonds will produce a savings of approximately $785,000 per year over the next 15 years, or nearly $11.8 million.

The new debt replaced a series of revenue bonds issued at higher interest rates in 1999.

In other business Tuesday, the convention authority board:

- Approved Keith Smith, president of Las Vegas-based Boyd Gaming Corp., as one the Nevada Resort Association's three appointees to the authority's 13-member board. Smith fills the seat vacated by former Boyd Gaming President Don Snyder, who retired March 31.

In a separate vote, Smith was named chairman of the authority's five-member audit committee.

- Announced plans to build a visitors center in downtown Las Vegas.