Welcome to Sheldonville

I wandered over to Firkin and Fox on Sunday morning expecting the back bar to be a quiet place where I could watch some football.

But instead I was greeted by a crew from Laborers Union Local 872 working to cover nearly every square inch of the room in Oakland Raiders' black and silver paraphernalia. Across the street sat a fire engine also decorated in silver and black, ready to greet Nevada Legislators who are meeting today to decide whether to raise $750 million in tax dollars to build a football stadium in Las Vegas to lure the Raiders to abandon their home in Oakland for a second time.

"We have a projector that can turn the capital dome into a Raider's helmet," said Tom White, the guy in charge of this interesting bit of lobbying. "But they said we couldn't because it would desecrate the building or something!"

I declined the offer of a Raiders t-shirt, explaining that being born near Kansas City has forever obligated me to hate the silver and black. So I just tried to sit there and enjoy my meal while watching the New England Patriots decimate the woeful Cleveland Browns.

My first reaction to the special legislative session called by Gov. Brian Sandoval to consider this stadium proposal — less than a month before the election of a new Gang of 63 and four months before the start of a new regular session — was to marvel at the absurdity of it all.

Essentially they want to give $750 million taxpayer dollars to Sheldon Adelson, who is worth $31 billion, and who is the chief purchaser of politicians in the state. So, I expect a strong majority of anti-tax Republicans and corporate-welfare-hating Democrats will ignore their so-called principles and approve this plan.

Perhaps Sandoval should also propose to change the name of our city to Sheldonville, to give proper credit to the man who really runs this state.

There is also the fact that numerous studies have shown these taxpayer-funded stadium deals are almost never worth the expense. And these wandering NFL teams aren't exactly loyal to their home cities, often leaving them jilted and stuck with massive bills to pay in their wake.

However, football fervor usually overrules rationality and mathematics.

As I sat there amid this buzz of activity, I started thinking about it a little differently. This was a bit different than most of those other stadium deals. The money to pay for this stadium would come from raising room taxes, and it seems the resorts that own those hotel rooms are perfectly happy to slap an extra tax on themselves to fund this stadium. They must not be afraid that people who visit Las Vegas will be put off by the higher prices. It's the visitors who will pay, not us.

Yes, it would be nice if this money were to go to the schools, but of course the resorts would never agree to raising their taxes just for that. They look at this as an investment to draw more people to Las Vegas.

So, why not? I don't have to pay the tax. The only sticking point for me left under this proposed deal is Nevada taxpayers would get stuck with the bill if the room taxes fall short. Perhaps legislators can fix that part before they shamelessly approve this deal so they can get back campaigning.

If the Raiders do come to Vegas, it means they are farther away from Sheldonville, er, Carson City than they are now, and will hopefully leave a few extra dollars in our state's economy.

And that suits this Kansas City Chiefs fan just fine.