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Lawmakers say businesses need more than tax breaks
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David Becker/Las Vegas Review-Journal
Tina Gonzalez speaks with representatives from Wells Fargo Bank on Thursday during Directions 2011, a North Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce-sponsored economic forecast panel discussion and exposition for North Las Vegas at Texas Station. » Buy this photo
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ManpowerGroup recruiter Clara Martine instructs Jeffrey Mockbee on the assembly and following-directions test at his company's booth at Directions 2011 on Thursday at Texas Station. The North Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce sponsored the annual expo. David Becker/Las Vegas Review-Journal » Buy this photo
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
It's going to take more than tax abatements, clever slogans and promising talk to bring economic diversity to Southern Nevada, a panel of experts said Thursday at Directions 2011.
Legislators are tired of giving tax incentives to businesses relocating from other states and seeing no return on it, Assemblywoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas, said at the economic forum sponsored by the North Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce and the Las Vegas Business Press.
Local municipalities and state agencies need to formulate a more cohesive effort to foster growth in key industry clusters such as information technology, manufacturing and renewable energy, Kirkpatrick said.
She also said the state is missing out on business growth because of its arcane system for issuing business licenses and permits.
"If you're a pool company in North Las Vegas and you want to clean a pool in Las Vegas, you need another license. If you want to clean a pool in Henderson, you need another license," Kirkpatrick told an audience of about 150 at Texas Station.
Kirkpatrick said one businessman was "out of business before he went into business" because it took him 18 months to get the proper permits and start work. Meanwhile, the economy tanked.
"We're working more with everybody to have a focus," Kirkpatrick said.
Economic development is a recurring theme in Southern Nevada, but it hasn't worked out as well as everyone would have liked over the years, said Mike PeQueen, chairman-elect for the North Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce.
Consultant Tom Skancke of The Skancke Co. said "sustainability" is an overused word today, but the reality is eveyone is struggling to stay in businesses.
"We thought it was just us, but it was everywhere," he said. "It's global. Sen. (Harry) Reid told me we were on our way back if weren't for Greece."
Skancke likes Kirkpatrick's idea of developing inland ports in Nevada.
Phoenix and Denver are seen as competition for Las Vegas, when in reality, Las Vegas should partner with those cities to create a nexus of infrastructure for importing cargo, he said.
Skancke is on board with Assembly Bill 449. Passed by the Nevada Legislature in June, the bill created the Office of Economic Development to establish a "catalyst" fund to provide grants and loans to regional agencies for the purpose of economic development.
Five Western states -- Nevada, California, Arizona, Utah and Colorado -- account for 30 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product, Skancke said.
He talked about Interstate 11, which would run from Phoenix through Las Vegas to Seattle, being a critical part of Nevada's inland port development.
"Our power lies in the connectivity of the regional West, and we're not taking advantage of that," Skancke said. "When we go to Congress, we should ask for $10 million instead of $2 million here and $2 million there. Why should we be competing with each other? Let's create a new regional vision."
Skancke said 45 percent of the goods that come into the port in Long Beach, Calif., are shipped to points east of the Mississippi River, either by rail or train.
Southern Nevada imports 80 percent of its goods from Long Beach, he said.
Kirkpatrick said North Las Vegas has a huge industrial corridor and foreign trade zone, yet nothing is being done with it.
"We've got some potential folks in place, and we've got some foreign folks looking," she said.
While Southern Nevada is often said to lack an educated workforce, one audience member pointed out that with unemployment at 14 percent, there are cab drivers with sociology degrees.
But panelist John Restrepo, principal of RCG Economics, said there's a difference.
"Where we lack is not high school or college degrees. Where we lack is science and engineering degrees," Restrepo said. "There's a brain drain. We don't have employment for them, so they leave. They go to California."
Kirkpatrick, a North Las Vegas native and a product of Clark County schools, said the region has plenty of talent.
"I talked to a company who said they would have to bring all 35 of their employees because we don't have qualified people," Kirkpatrick said.
"I said, 'I'll get you those 35 people tomorrow, believe me.' You should be able to go to the unemployment office and say, 'Give me 10 people.' That's one of our faults. We have tons of assets in Clark County and we need to work together better to get people into those jobs," she said.
Contact reporter Hubble Smith at hsmith@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0491.
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I personally don't ever refer to LV as Sin City, its immature and ignorant. We need to grow up an start marketing the area as a whole and not just the strip.
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The hedonist image of Las Vegas does effect plenty of people from moving/staying here. One RJ article discussed how Vegas kids aspire to work at gentleman's clubs. I would not want that to be my kid, therefore if I had kids I'ld move some where else. It's a shame because there are plenty of good sides to Las Vegas.
Tom, are you referring to the likes of Station Casinos, that fights any attempt at competition and pays off local officials thru donations to stymie those already in existence?
@ husky: Thanks. I will only add that I think Tony.Wright is also "spot on." My guess is that Vegas will probably never be very successful at economic diversification, because those Vegas companies already in business that profit from the "Sin City" image will do their best to keep it from being changed in any way.
Come on Tom, their daughters learned that stuff long before they ever heard of Las Vegas. However I think you're spot on about most adults perception of Nevada and Sin City, especially the eastern parts of America.
Less regulation: GOOD
Funding solar boondoggles: BAD
wasnt nancy release on bail last week? isnt she the same one?
Another delusional post from nancy that makes absolutely no sense. Just say no to more taxes and starve the parasites.
I have personally known quite a few scientists and engineers who either left Las Vegas, or did not come in the first place, because they did not want to raise their children in "Sin City." As one example, I have had more than one woman friend who told me about having to repeatedly explain to their daughters about how there is more to being a woman than just the half-naked sex objects that they see all the time on billboards. The carefully cultivated reputation of Vegas as a party town may very well harm it's efforts to diversify in the long run.