Clark County taxpayers could face as much as $4.4 billion in extra roadway costs over 25 years if voters approve Nevada's eminent domain initiative on next month's ballot, an economic analysis concludes.
In a report commissioned by the Regional Transportation Commission, Jeremy Aguero of the Las Vegas firm Applied Analysis presented preliminary findings that confirm the worst fears of county officials, who contend the eminent domain measure goes too far in protecting property owners' rights at taxpayers' expense.
"Its sobering," RTC General Manager Jacob Snow said Wednesday.
"This is taking money away from transportation projects the public needs and giving it to landowners and attorneys, and that's the absolute worst thing we can do right now. We're already behind the curve trying to keep up with growth."
Snow said county officials plan to use Aguero's findings to "educate the public" about the potentially catastrophic impact of Question 2 on the Nov. 7 ballot.
Aguero is scheduled to present the results of his study - which deals only with transportation costs, not those for flood control and other public projects that could be affected by the initiative - to the RTC board today.
The ballot measure's backers, calling themselves the People's Initiative to Stop the Taking of Our Land - PISTOL - were inspired by a June 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision in an eminent domain case in New London, Conn. In that case, the high court upheld the city's decision to take residential property from nine homeowners for a private redevelopment project that the economically depressed city claimed was for the public good.
Property rights advocates throughout the country were outraged by the high court's decision, prompting ballot initiatives and legislation in several states to ban the forced transfer of property by government from one private landowner to another.
In Nevada, state and local officials have warned that the state initiative could kill many public works projects by thwarting or substantially driving up the cost of eminent domain - the process by which governments may buy private land for public purposes.
Most of the concerns about the Nevada measure focus on three of its nine provisions:
Las Vegas eminent domain attorney Kermitt Waters, the initiative's co-author, dismisses those concerns, arguing that the measure actually would reduce eminent domain litigation by forcing government to treat landowners "far more fairly."
In his preliminary study, Aguero projected a range of added roadway costs in Clark County from $767.1 million on the low end to $4.4 billion on the high end. He estimated the midrange of additional highway costs throughout the state at $2.9 billion - a figure that includes $2 billion in Clark County.
The calculations were based on a complex formula that measured increased costs associated with roadway construction and traffic congestion and potential loss of federal highway funds.
Although Snow said he believes the $2 billion midrange estimate for Clark County is the most realistic, he acknowledged that no one is certain of the initiative's eventual impact.
Aguero made it clear in a summary of his conclusions that there is still "significant uncertainty" and that further study is needed.
The initiative, he said, likely would increase the cost of obtaining land for public projects, as well as increase the number of eminent domain cases in court.
Federal highway funds also would be threatened and many projects would be "materially altered" or not developed at all, he said.
Initiative proponents have dismissed opponents' dire financial warnings as "pure propaganda."
"The goal is to treat people fairly," the initiative's other co-author, Don Chairez, the Republican candidate for attorney general, previously told the Sun. "I don't want to shut down government. I come from California. I love freeways. We just don't want the government to treat landowners like they treated American Indians."
But Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, a leading initiative critic , has said that the initiative would lead to gridlock in Southern Nevada and would enrich a handful of lawyers by encouraging property owners to fight eminent domain efforts in court.
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