Posted on: July 30, 2024, 12:07h.
Last updated on: July 30, 2024, 12:09h.
It’s been nearly three years since Clark County officially renamed Las Vegas’ international airport from McCarran to Harry Reid. So why is its former moniker still visible throughout the airport?
The reason is that the Clark County Commission stipulated that no public money be used for the renaming, and the money raised privately has long been depleted.
Using zero taxpayer dollars helped drum up support for the renaming, proposed by Commissioner Tick Segerblom, since Clark County wouldn’t have to find the $2 million Segerblom initially estimated it would cost from its budget.
Green from the Blue
Private funding also thwarted vigorous opposition from the Nevada’s many Republicans. Though considered a hero by many, Reid was an ardent Democrat who served as Senate Majority Leader during Barack Obama’s presidency.
Prior to the rededication, Reid supporters gushed forth to contribute to the effort. Diamond Resorts International founder Stephen J. Cloobeck and retired gambler Billy Walters donated $1 million each.
Unfortunately, all that money was absorbed by the most expensive part of the project — switching out the marquee road signs along Tropicana Avenue, a job originally budgeted at only $1.95 million.
In November 2022, the first of three phases of the renaming had to be halted due to rising construction costs and the lack of funding to cover them. Some progress has been made since, but as time dragged on, the total cost soared ever more uncontrollably skyward.
As of February this year, it was estimated to be around $7.7 million.
Currently, McCarran’s name still graces the welcome signs, exterior building signs, rental car shuttle buses, all signage and markers inside the terminals, and all staff uniforms.
No timeline for completion of the remaining phases has been announced.
Who Was McCarran?
Patrick McCarran served Nevada in the US Senate from 1933 until his death in 1954. During his tenure, McCarran, also a Democrat, sponsored several key commercial aviation bills. These included the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938 and the Federal Airport Act of 1945.
He also funded the purchase of the land that build the first Las Vegas airfield, which is why, in 1941, that airfield was named after him.
However, McCarran was also instrumental in limiting the number of Jewish refugees allowed to enter the US after the Holocaust. In fact. Reid told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that McCarran was “one of the most anti-Semitic … one of the most anti-Black, one of the most prejudiced people ever to serve in the Senate.”
For a body that has included Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms, that’s saying something — though, to be fair, Reid never met McCarran, who died when Reid was 14.
Reid retired in 2017 as Nevada’s longest-serving US Senator at 30 years. He died at age 82 in December 2021, two weeks after the airport was rededicated in his name.
