The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is spending more than $2.2 million on influencers to promote the city, but the taxpayer-funded agency redacted the amount of money each influencer received, calling it a trade secret.
Ben Lipman, chief legal officer at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, said there is no exemption in state law that allows the agency to hide the amount of public money paid to a contractor or vendor.
“That should be public,” he said. “That the amount of money a governmental entity pays to independent contractors is somehow a trade secret is without basis. This is a government expenditure that is quintessentially public information.”
