Published Nov 4, 2010
Published Thursday November 4, 2010

La Vista voters support LB 1018

By Trenton Albers
Times/Sun Editor

La Vista voters on Tuesday gave its City Council authority to use the Nebraska Advantage Transformational Tourism and Redevelopment Act for future development projects in the city.

It wasn’t just the passage of the initiative that satisfied the bill’s biggest proponent, La Vista Mayor Doug Kindig — it was the margin of victory.

According to unofficial results, the La Vista Sales Tax Direction proposal passed with 77 percent approval.

“I think it shows that we’ve done some good economic development in the past and that the voters have trusted the City Council decisions on what we’ve done,” Kindig said.

Authorized by the Nebraska Legislature as LB 1018, its passage will allow La Vista to rebate a new development or redevelopment project with the local sales tax it produces to offset start-up costs.

La Vista is the first city in the state to pass the initiative.

While the city led the charge on the bill from the get-go, Kindig said La Vista couldn’t have done it alone.

“First of all, without the cooperation of the United Cities, I don’t think this passes in Lincoln,” he said. “La Vista may have brought this to the United Cities, but it was a combined effort.”

Kindig said he’s excited about the possibilities the bill has for new development, most importantly for the city’s Vision 84 project, a plan to redevelop the city’s 84th Street corridor.

“We’ve had developers that have talked to us, and we don’t have anything, but I think this will move those discussions forward much quicker now,” Kindig said.

“So yes, I would expect the phone to be ringing.“