Walters
windfall a slam dunk
By Steve Miller,
former Las
Vegas City Councilman
November 1, 2005
LAS VEGAS - Golf Course developer,
political
campaign fund raiser, and potential
bankrupt, Billy Walters is expected to plead poverty
before the LV City Council on Wednesday, November 2. But, it
won't be his first
time.
In 2003,
Walters
told the Clark County Commission that if
he didn't get his way, he would go bankrupt. To no one's surprise, he
got his way, and the majority of the commissioners received big
campaign contributions.
Wednesday, one of his most dilapidated
golf courses will come before the Sin City council on a request for the
lifting
of a "permanent" deed restriction that, if granted, will garner
Walters a $50 million dollar windfall, or, if denied, may catapult
him into self-proclaimed bankruptcy.
Meanwhile, Walters,
according to TravelGolf.com.,
neglected his Stallion Mountain golf
course to the extent that few wanted to play there anymore. What some
may call "planned obsolescence."
.
(TravelGolf.com
photos)
After
I saw the above depressing photos, I had to see for myself. Sure enough, the course was a
mess, albeit, a mess I believe was purposefully allowed to happen
in order to create the impression that it was just days away from
becoming
blow sand, and that its owner was just a po-boy doing his
best to keep his head above gray water.
It
has been my opinion since I broke this
story in 1999, that Billy Walters had secret plans for the 160
acres he practically stole from the taxpayers for only $5,600 per acre.
As I said then, he would be back because the "permanent" deed
restriction he so graciously accepted wasn't worth the paper it
was printed on.
Part of the 1999 deal included the caveat that he would
accept a permanent deed restriction to limit the land's use to a golf
course and would charge low green fees for locals. (Green fees are
now $176-$295, according to the Walters Golf web site.) In the
meantime, our bought-and-paid-for governor granted him a tax
break!
"All I can do with this property is
operate a golf course. Nothing more, nothing less," Walters told the Las Vegas Review Journal that year.
But also according to the Review
Journal: "During a
six-year period ending in 2002, Walters contributed at least $87,000 to
the campaigns of eight different Clark County commissioners, according to
campaign contribution reports. During that same time, he gave five Las
Vegas City Council members $43,000."
This does not include the fund raising parties he
throws at his Cili
Restaurant where money is often not reported until weeks after the
event, and state law does not require the time and place the
donation was received to be listed.
Tomorrow,
Walter's former attorney-cum-mayor, Oscar Goodman, will undoubtedly
lead the charge to help
his friend stay out of self-proclaimed bankruptcy, and grant him his
every wish
-- I guarantee it. Oscar
made a fortune
off the guy in the 80's, and as he often proves, his
former clients can do no wrong in the eyes of his obedient city
council (Crazy Horse Too?).
Also,
how can someone who is the business
partner of Las Vegas SUN
publisher Brian Greenspun be allowed to go bankrupt?
In
other words, "The fix is in." -- SM
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