Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is quickly re-doing its budget, with coronavirus casino closures and business shutdowns projected to result in a two-thirds cut in hotel room tax funding for the fiscal year starting July 1.

Chief executive Steve Hill said authority room tax revenue is expected to drop from US $300 million to between $100 million and $120 million for the upcoming fiscal year, the Las Vegas Sun reported. At Hill’s request, the tourism agency board last week agreed to delay until next month consideration of a new budget.

“Fiscal year 2021 was set to be an exceptionally strong year,” Hill said. “In February, we were excited about the direction the year was headed in. We were set to set records in a number of different ways.”

Now, he said, “Fiscal year 2021 is going to be a difficult year.”

The authority receives about one-third of room tax revenue generated in and around Las Vegas. The other two-thirds supports schools and infrastructure projects.

Hill said the authority was likely to lose another $60 million in income due to postponements and cancellations of conventions, meetings and trade shows at the Las Vegas Convention Center and other locations. One of those cancellations was The US Travel Association’s annual IPW conference scheduled from May 30 to June 03.

“We expect the meetings that will happen will be somewhat smaller than they have been in the past,” he said.

The authority on April 14 slashed its budget by $79 million – cutting executive pay, freezing hiring and eliminating 400 temporary and on-call trade show positions, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported .

Of 455 full-time employees, 80 positions were dissolved and 270 workers were furloughed with health care benefits left intact. Hill said employees would be able to apply for federal and state coronavirus relief and unemployment aid.

The budget will be introduced at the May 12 board meeting and considered for approval after a public hearing in a special meeting May 27.