Question of the Day - 09 August 2021

For this answer, we consulted a pair of local historians.

Mob Museum Vice President of Exhibits & Programs Geoff Schumacher put it bluntly. “Bottom line is the resort owners and operators actively fought annexation attempts by the city.”

Why? You’ve put your finger on it: taxes. They’re higher within the city limits of Las Vegas, creating a substantial disincentive to be absorbed into Sin City proper.

We also turned to University of Nevada-Las Vegas history professor Michael Green, who writes, “Bear in mind that the Strip really wasn't much when it began. The El Rancho Vegas was built just across the city line (then San Francisco Street, now Sahara Avenue), because owner Tom Hull wanted to avoid municipal taxes and rules. Once R.E. Griffith and Bill Moore (Last Frontier), Billy Wilkerson, Bugsy Siegel, and friends (Flamingo), and the Lansky allies (Thunderbird) followed suit, the city grew more interested and tried to annex it.

“The operators of these casinos included some mobsters, yes,” Green resumes, “but they were businessmen, too, and acted like businessmen: They wanted to rule their own roost. They pushed the state legislature to approve a change in the law, aided by Cliff Jones, who was both the lieutenant governor and a Thunderbird co-owner — a major power in the state. Under the law, no city could annex unincorporated land without the county commission's approval. The Clark County Commission created two townships in the early 1950s, Paradise and Winchester. The Strip is in Paradise ... literally. The only way a city can annex or add an unincorporated township is by a vote of the people in the township.”

Faced with higher taxes, it’s not surprising that the residents of Paradise feel they’re paying enough to be in unincorporated Clark County.

Fun fact: While Laughlin, well to the south, may appear to be a city, it is also unincorporated land. Citizens put cityhood to a vote several years ago and gave the idea a thumbs-down. Perhaps they feared that with city status would come more responsibilities — and higher taxes to pay for them.