While Item B1 of the Redevelopment Agency Board Wednesday is a presentation “on the Grand Sierra Resort Arena Project's request for Tax Increment Financing, including a summary of the financial gap analysis, potential approval of deal terms, and potential delegation of authorization to execute the final participation agreement to the Executive Director of the Redevelopment Agency,” it’s a good reminder to look at how the different casino entities of Alex Meruelo have flooded most of our City Council with enormous campaign donations in recent cycles.
A local Redditor recently called the possible TIF for the proposed GSR expansion, which would redirect future increases in tax revenue from the project back to the private developer, as “almost the literal definition” of privatizing profit by socializing costs.
Other casinos have sent a letter disputing this plan, quoting Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 279 which has TIF intended to be used in “blighted areas which constitute either social or economic liabilities, or both …”
The GSR’s plan has been touted as a $1 billion project with a new 10-thousand seat arena scheduled for just three years away, including for Wolf Pack basketball, big name concerts and possibly minor league hockey. Initially UNR President Brian Sandoval had said no public funds, including Tax Increment Financing, would be needed, but that turns out to have been an early misdirection.
We probably couldn’t find all the Meruelo related donations as his casinos come up under different names in contribution reports, but what we could identify is that the Grand Sierra Resort itself gave $5,000 to potential future mayoral aspirant Brandi Anderson in September 2024, and $5,000 to the sometimes on the fence about these issues Naomi Duerr in October 2023 for another electoral seat she was seeking.
The MEI-GSR Holdings gave Kathleen Taylor $5,000 in December 2023, in the crucial Ward 1 race that could have tipped the balances in such council decisions, with Meghan Ebert often opposing big developers, Duerr never entirely predictable, and Mayor Hillary Schieve recently more of a wild card. Taylor has been firmly entrenched with the Anderson, Devon Reese and Miguel Martinez camp, carrying that pro development at seemingly any cost group to most Council decisions. Only Anderson was initially elected from the group, while the three others gained initial entry into the Council through a non elected internal replacement appointment process.
Martinez got two payments of $5,000 from MEI-GSR, the first in 2023 and the second in 2024, while Reese also got two $5,000 paychecks from that entity.
Meruelo’s other casino, called the Sahara in Las Vegas in some contribution reports, gave $10,000 to Reese in April 2024, and $10,000 to the equally developer friendly Martinez in May 2024 . The same casino but called Sahara Las Vegas gave Taylor $10,000 in April 2024 and the same amount in the same month to Duerr, even as she was running for the State Senate.
That’s a lot of Meruelo related cash, including some not even coming from his Reno casino but from Las Vegas.
Not to be left out of the picture, Mayor Schieve herself has received a total of at least $21,000 from GSR related entities from what we could find in contribution reports since 2014. Reese previously got $5,000 from the Grand Sierra Resort in his 2020 campaign, as developers are well known to play the long game in who they support in elections.