Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman was presented with the 2008 Public Leadership in the Arts Award for Local Arts Leadership for championing the arts as a means to spurring downtown revitalization. Mayor Goodman ordered suspension and rewriting of city zoning ordinances which previously prevented artist live/work sites downtown. He also put forth a city Percent for the Arts ordinance and used his influence to make it law. Today, one percent of the city’s capital construction budget is spent on art, a stunning advance in a state which rarely supports taxes and government expenditures.