CARSON CITY -- As they say, the devil is in the details.
And for most of the day and into the Thursday night, state lawmakers delved into the details of a $315 million incentive plan to bring Faraday Future to the Apex industrial Park in North Las Vegas.
The state Assembly looked into how the $1-billion Faraday Future electric car plant would create jobs – and tried to ensure that the plant’s workforce would be diverse by including money to train workers.
But the meat of the plan fell into the Senate’s lap.
Senators generally seemed to favor the incentive plan, but they wanted information about what happens if Faraday fails. And what if Apex doesn’t work as planned?
Who would end up footing the bill?
State Sen. Joe Hardy, R-Henderson, said the answer is clear. The state will pay.
”If we haven’t given the county power to tax as a home-rule issues, then obviously anything the city can't handle would default to the state and we’d be in charge of making up anything good," Hardy said.
Then again, he added, "if we do this, maybe the city would do something that would help it be more financially healthful."
Hardy was referring to not just the $200 million tax incentives being considered to draw Faraday Future to the industrial park. The state would also spend some $115 million for infrastructure to the park.
Senators said hundreds of companies have looked at the park, have wanted to do business there -- but can't because it doesn't have the water and other necessary utilities.
North Las Vegas is so cash poor, however, it needs the state to pay for the infrastructure.
And that leads to the issue of water.
If the state builds a water infrastructure, some senators say they want to give control of the water -- and future companies that hook into the system -- to Clark County and the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
If that happens, it means the industrial park will be in North Las Vegas, but Clark County and the SNWA will have a big part in controlling who goes into it.
"A lot of ego is on the line," said one source in the legislative building in Carson City.
That's one issue that is putting a monkey's wrench into the process. The other is time.
State Sen. Patricia Farley, R-Las Vegas, said she would like more time to review the bill before voting.
“The problem I have is that the bill was handed to us yesterday and it’s 81 pages," Farley said late Thursday. "There’s a lot of information in that. And so my skepticism comes from, I’m not happy about the process. I would like some time, time to talk to constituents and people this will affect and to do this in such a hurry concerns me."
Farley also said she's worried that if the county and SNWA gains control of the water in Apex -- and businesses that want to move there -- it would mean union workers would have the upper hand over non-union.
The county and SNWA would demand that contractors hire union workers, she added; but only about 20 percent of the construction workforce in Clark County is unionized. She thinks it would be unfair to non-union workers.
"It's a big issue to me," she said.
"I do think there will be some votes against the bill," political columnist Jon Ralston told KNPR's State of Nevada, "I think the votes are there now to pass it."
He believes the 'no' votes will come from Southern Nevada lawmakers in the Assembly who he describes as being "generally on the fringes," but the majority will vote for it because Northern Nevada got southern support for Tesla last year.
Ralston agrees that this deal and the one that was passed last year for Telsa are being completed quickly and lawmakers are essentially being asked to trust Steve Hill, the head of the governor's office of economic development.
"This is a gamble," he said, "This is more of a gamble than Tesla in someways and less in others. It's a gamble because Tesla is a known brand. Tesla actually has something that Faraday doesn't: A car!"
Julia Ritchey with KUNR said there is a lot of comparisons going on between the deal for Faraday and the deal for Tesla, but she said Steve Hill spent a lot of time during his four hour explanation of the package showing the difference.
"He kept describing it this deal as a 'mid-tier' deal, meaning this is a much smaller company" she said. "It's a $1 billion factory versus Telsa's $5 billion factory."
According to Ritchey, Hill pointed out several times that the tax credits, which is the money the state will be paying to the company for following certain rules like hiring Nevadans, Faraday would be receiving are much smaller than the credits Tesla received.
Ralston said the biggest difference between the deal for Faraday and the deal for Tesla is Apex Industrial Park.
"That's really what this deal is about, being able to bring infrastructure to a place that has been ripe for development for a long, long time," Ralston said.
Despite the back and forth over water and control, Ralston and Ritchey believe the votes will be there to make the deal happen.
Jon Ralston, political columnist for the Reno Gazette-Journal and host of "Ralston Live" on Vegas PBS; Julia Ritchey, reporter, KUNR
