Governor Joe Lombardo has called a special session to negotiate the proposed Oakland A's baseball stadium in Las Vegas.

The Nevada legislature returned for a second special session on Wednesday to decide whether the state will provide $380 million in public financing for a $1.5 billion 30,000 seat stadium to relocate the Oakland Athletics to the Las Vegas strip.

Governor Joe Lombardo is essentially asking the legislature to reconsider Senate Bill 509 which failed to advance on the final day of the 120 day regular session. 

After months of negotiations with the Oakland A;s, Lombardo reached a deal and brought it forward to the legislature as SB509. It's clear to see that Lombardo has invested a lot of political capital in bringing the stadium to fruition. 

The public funding would mainly come from $180 million in transferable tax credits and $120 million in county bonds. 

The proposal pledges to create a special sports and entertainment tax district around the stadium. All of the taxes from the special district including: property, goods, food, entertainment would go toward paying off the 30 year bond.

Opponents are skeptical that the district will generate enough revenue, but even if it does perform, some lawmakers still consider it lost revenue for the state. 

"That is thirty years of tax revenue that we are going to lose out. They claim it is new taxes but it is lost revenue because we are collecting property taxes there, we're collecting taxes for police, for fire, for schools, and that will all be gone. That money is supposed to pay back the bonds, but that is dependent on dependence, we know that a's are the lowest attended in the nation, they're the worst team in the nation, and i think projections they're going to sell out every single game, are rosy estimates at best," said (D - Reno) Assemblywoman Selena La Rue Hatch. 

However, representatives for the project say there's a four year cash reserve. It means the district would have to generate zero revenue for four years to default on the bonds. 

The success of the project hinges on attendance, and that's a concern for legislators, as the Oakland A's is one of the lowest performing teams in Major League Baseball. 

Representative for the project say that the stadium would need to bring in at least 50% of the national attendance average to succeed. 

"First of all everybody keeps telling me the Oakland a's is the worst team, yeah that happens. but somebody is going to be the worst team, that's what sports is about. but, you know the Houston Astros were the worst team and about 5 years later they were in the world series, so you know it doesn't take much for a team to turn around. it just takes the right moves," said (R-Las Vegas) Senator Scott Hammond. 

Several lawmakers who spoke to KTVN on Wednesday said that the special session is costing the taxpayers an estimated $100,000 per day. That's according to lawmakers and caucus representatives seeking information from the Legislative Council Bureau. 

The special session was supposed to begin at 10 am on Wednesday but lawmakers did not start deliberations until after 3pm.

While Senator Hammond says the bill should been resolved during the legislature, he says the effort of bringing the A's to Las Vegas is worth holding a special session. 

"Baseball, not only is it America's game, but it's also another sports team that will bring revenue into our city and into our state. This will be really really good for our state, so I'm in favor of anything that diversifies the economy and brings another team into Las Vegas. I'd like to see another thing like we're seeing with the Golden Knights, I'd like to see that again with baseball. we saw the Super Bowl brought to Allegiant Stadium, I'd like to see the World Series brought to Las Vegas as well."

This, as Lombardo has more than 40 bills sitting on his desk. 

Lombardo has ten days to decide on any bills that passed after June 1st, and sources tell us he could threaten vetoes on certain bills to motivate legislators to vote yes on the A's Stadium. 

The Senate Committee of the Whole is expected to deliberate all Wednesday evening, and the public comment period is expected to last hours with hundreds of call-ins from Las Vegas residents. 

The Assembly is scheduled to reconvene at noon on Thursday.

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