Don’t hold your breath.

MGM Mirage surprised me by meeting today with the governor whose opponent for office the company has prominently endorsed. I wonder what came out of the meeting? According to the AP story running on the Sun site the news is great:

“Casino operator MGM Mirage is pledging to quickly pay some 600 subcontractors who helped build the $8.5 billion CityCenter complex on the Las Vegas Strip.”

The Review Journal story by Howard Stutz is more conservative noting that the MGM Mirage pledge is coming not via the company but in words  from the less than reliable governor. According to the Review-Journal, the governor offered: “MGM Mirage leaders have assured me they intend to move as quickly as possible to pay the hundreds of subcontractors who worked on the CityCenter project.” But who decides how much to pay them?

As for speed, MGM Mirage’s meeting with the subcontractors is not even set until June 9. And, don’t expect to hand an invoice to the casino giant and get paid. According to the Review-Journal, that meeting is to “facilitate a payment process.” Again, another event to make payment go quicker. There is a lot of delay, apparently, necessary for speed.

Again, as I asked this morning, if 80% of the money that Perini is claiming is owed to the subcontractors, and MGM Mirage claim they do not owe that money, how does talking to the subcontractors in a  few weeks change anything?

And, why isn’t the court case the preferred method still as MGM Mirage previously claimed?