The construction of a new NFL American football stadium in Las Vegas has cleared the first of two regulatory hurdles in the Nevada Legislature after lawmakers passed a bill to increase hotel taxes to pay for the development.
The 16-5 vote in favour of the bill will raise the taxes by up to 1.4 percentage points in order to fund the stadium project and the construction of a new convention centre.
The bill should provide $750m (£612m/€681m) for the project, which will be partly funded by casino mogul Sheldon Adelson. Having garnered more than two-thirds of the votes, the measure will be considered by the Assembly.
The 65,000-seat domed stadium would create 14,000 permanent jobs.
“I couldn't leave this chamber and look a labourer in the eye and say I had a chance to give you a job and I voted no,” Democratic Senator Aaron Ford, one of those to support the motion, said.
However, Democrat Senator Ruben Kihuen said that the deal represented a “bad precedent”.
“This magnitude of public money for a legacy project of one of the wealthiest people in the world is just plain unacceptable,” he said.
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