We knew that when the city and county and university system formed a task force to study whether Las Vegas needed a new arena that the real question was going to be, "how can we get these suckers in Las Vegas to pay for it." C’mon, everybody knew that. They barely pretended otherwise when the task force was announced back in April.

Along the way, the study focused more on where to build a new arena and how much it would cost than on whether there was really a need. And now, sure enough, the task force has concluded that, golly gee, we do need a new arena.

And it’s going to cost $404 million (not including land or infrastructure, or the $200,000 city and county taxpayers split to pay for the study in the first place) and require an ongoing subsidy of between $11 million and $27 million, depending on whether a pro team moves to town.

So now it’s up to us. We must Just. Say. No.

No, we don’t believe that an outlay of that size is appropriate for a city where people can’t even get around in traffic right now. No, it’s not appropriate for a city struggling with all manner of growth-related problems, including a shortage of schools, teachers, cops, firefighters, nurses, adequate social services, affordable housing, etc.

Until we get those things under control, building a stadium and subsidizing it to the tune of between $11 million and $27 million is like a guy who makes $30,000 going into debt to buy a $255,000 Austin Martin Vanquish. Let’s spend $404 million on our roads, or timing our signal lights, or hurrying up road construction schedules, and see the benefits that will bring, why don’t we?

In fact, the only way that an arena should ever be brought to Las Vegas is what we’ll call the Goodman Way.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman says he’s still looking for a sports team to bring to downtown Las Vegas, anticipating that the new-stadium people are going to select a site in more wide-open Clark County. But, Goodman says, he can do it without a penny of tax dollars, by making the team pay for their digs.

Now, the idea of a pro team coming to Las Vegas has been a chimera for a long time, but then again, new development in the downtown was unheard of until Goodman came along, too. If anybody can pull it off, he can. Certainly, Goodman has been known to give away tax breaks downtown. If there is any public subsidy, even in the form of tax breaks, the idea of a stadium should be a non-starter for residents.

But if Goodman really can do what he says, and bring a team to town with a stadium at no cost to taxpayers, then we say more power to him. Otherwise, we all have to just say no.

» Aldous Huxley’s Savage once told the people who ran the brave, new world that he liked the inconveniences. Well, he’d have loved living in Las Vegas. Not only does it seem that every single road between you and your daily destination is constantly under construction, but when you finally get fed up and want to get the hell out of town, you can’t find a parking space!

So what does outgoing Clark County Aviation Director Randy Walker suggest? Get a limo!

That’s right, the man who will soon leave the top job at the airport to take a position with Carter & Burgess, a firm that has landed plenty of contracts at McCarran (and will no doubt land many more), says that one way to avoid holiday tie-ups is to ride to the airport in style.

His new job must pay a lot more than we thought.

Then again, Walker has always had a soft spot in his heart for the well-off. Remember back in 2005 when he tried to raise parking rates in the airport garage to dislodge the common folk so rich people would have a "consistent experience" (read — be able to park in nice covered parking without getting dirt on their Mercedes, Lexus and Bentley sedans)? We sure do. (Walker ended up getting the rates increased, but not by as much as he wanted.)

Anyway, we appreciate the fact that McCarran now has 13,000 parking spaces available for the public (although many of those aren’t in the convenient garage, and require hitching a ride on the shuttle bus to remote lots). And we appreciate that thousands of parking spots have been put off-limits to the public because of post-Sept. 11 regulations, which rendered one entire parking garage unusable for public parking.

But we still can’t help but wonder: Instead of telling the public why they can’t provide adequate parking, why can’t airport officials channel their energies into, say, building more public parking? Why aren’t we hearing about a news conference to announce a brand new parking garage, to start construction immediately after New Year’s so as to be ready for next year’s busy holiday season?

Maybe we can put Carter & Burgess on that? For a small fee, of course.

» Congrats to the Las Vegas Sun for beating back a libel lawsuit filed by Las Vegas Sands Corp., i.e. billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who lusts to be the richest man in the world. District Court Judge Michelle Leavitt ruled that it was OK for Sun Business Editor to look upon Sands’ sorry regulatory record and call it, well, a "sorry regulatory record."

It’s a blow for us ink-stained wretches, and a reminder that while the rich may get preferred parking at McCarran, they sure can’t silence the press when it’s got something legitimate to say.

» A couple of postscripts to one of the closest congressional races ever in Nevada, the 3rd Congressional District race between U.S. Rep. Jon Porter (who was returned to office) and challenger Tessa Hafen.

The good news for Porter is that the FBI has decided not to investigate the allegations that he made fundraising calls from his Washington, D.C. and district offices, which is a distinct and well-known no-no. Porter denied the allegations, made by a former staffer, and produced schedules to show he wasn’t even in his office when some of the calls were alleged to have been made.

"I take it the fact the FBI is not moving forward is that they are confident and they didn’t sense the need. Anyway, it was not true," Porter told the Review-Journal.

Meanwhile, Democrat Tom Collins, chairman of the state party, said it was all political. "You have to look at who hires these guys in the Justice Department. This is just the typical Bush-Cheney cover-up stuff. Jon Porter has done nothing to clear his name," Collins said.

Sorry, Tom, but we’re going to have to go with Porter on this one, and reject the theory that the administration is somehow behind putting pressure on the Justice Department and the FBI to let Porter off the hook. If the bureau had evidence he’d done something wrong, we’re guessing they’d have nailed him for it. (They haven’t been shy in other cases in recent months, have they?) Then again, Bush did come out to Las Vegas for a Porter fundraiser…

But Hafen also got some good postscript news. Staffers from CQPolitics.com named Hafen’s race the "most valiant effort" of the 2006 cycle. "Republicans threw everything they had at her, including charges she was a carpetbagger, a lightweight and a puppet for Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, her former boss," they wrote. "But despite the unfavorable odds, Hafen raised $1.3 million to Porter’s $2.8 million and had a very respectable showing come Election Day, losing by fewer than 4,000 votes and a 1-point margin."

Oh, and by the way: Those charges she was a carpetbagger, a lightweight and a puppet for Reid? They were all lies.

» Mayor Oscar Goodman has proven time and again that his loyalty doesn’t extend much beyond people also named "Goodman." That’s why we weren’t too terribly surprised to see that Goodman had thrown Las Vegas City Attorney Brad Jerbic under the proverbial bus in today’s R-J.

After yet another city ordinance (the one that bans feeding the homeless) was struck down by a federal judge (duh), Goodman (who sought the ordinance in the first place) told a reporter not to blame him for the result.

"Talk to Mr. Jerbic about why his ordinances are declared unconstitutional. We rely on our city attorney. I’m not practicing law there. I trust the city attorney," Goodman said.

No, but Goodman is an attorney, and he did practice law for decades, and he does have an obligation to put that knowledge to use for the city. (Remember when he wanted to argue the case for the ordinance that bans transporting nuclear waste through the city?) So we suspect that Goodman does have an inkling about whether a law is going to pass muster or not. And besides, he was told by some pretty good constitutional scholars over at the ACLU that this law wasn’t going to be upheld. Goodman, in fact, had every reason to believe the law would be struck down!

So what did he do? He "trusted" the city attorney who he told to write the damn law in the first place, so as to later absolve himself of blame when the inevitable, ACLU-predicted result transpired.

We tell you, if this isn’t Profiles in Courage, we have no idea what is.