More On Forming A Vision For Nevada’s Future
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
Shortly after the start of the new year the Nevada Vision Stakeholders Group will be holding their first meeting with the initial plan to have their work wrapped up by summer. This group of 20-plus members (when you count the alternates who are included except for voting), is given the assignment of recommending strategies for improving Nevada’s standing in these key quality-of-life areas:
Although I was only transplanted in Nevada slightly more than 21 years ago, this pursuit of economic diversification has been a top priority for government officials as long as I can remember. It has also been described as being a goal where the “diversification” would come in the form of high-paying jobs, proper environmental ramifications, good corporate citizenship performance (paying taxes without complaint and provide workers and their families with health insurance and other benefits) and if the last legislative session is any indication – the enterprises should also be 100 percent union.
There have been lots of funding earmarked and spent (federal and state) on any number of economic development projects geared to “diversifying” Nevada’s economy. We must not be there quite yet. If we were, the unemployment numbers for the state wouldn’t be what they are and we would assume that our corner of Utopia would have unlimited state spending potential because of overflowing state coffers.
Following the theme that maybe the improvements in these quality-of-life areas would best be accomplished with less government rather than more – it would seem very rational to consider that if we had more opportunity for business enterprises to thrive…they might be more inclined to become established here (whether through relocation or start-up)?
This though flies in the face of the current mindset that if government ain’t spending money to make it happen – we aren’t going to get anything accomplished.
More government, doing even bigger and greater things would appear to be the desire of those who believe that more government Is the only possible answer. In spite of the absence of evidence that government can buy economic diversification, continuing to do more of the same seems to be the track things are going to continue.
While the current notion is that government should fill the role of determining those who will succeed (because central planning just simply knows more than the random outcomes of market forces), attempts to stack the deck in favor of those so chosen haven’t seemed to have gotten us much in the way of economic diversification.
Then again, if social engineers and those who care so much more than ordinary people just had a little more cooperation from a more compliant private sector, willing to fork over more taxes – we could really be spending more…
Shortly after the start of the new year the Nevada Vision Stakeholders Group will be holding their first meeting with the initial plan to have their work wrapped up by summer. This group of 20-plus members (when you count the alternates who are included except for voting), is given the assignment of recommending strategies for improving Nevada’s standing in these key quality-of-life areas:
- Economic Diversification
- Education
- Energy Use
- Health and Human Services
- Job Creation
- Public Transit and Transportation
- Public Safety
Although I was only transplanted in Nevada slightly more than 21 years ago, this pursuit of economic diversification has been a top priority for government officials as long as I can remember. It has also been described as being a goal where the “diversification” would come in the form of high-paying jobs, proper environmental ramifications, good corporate citizenship performance (paying taxes without complaint and provide workers and their families with health insurance and other benefits) and if the last legislative session is any indication – the enterprises should also be 100 percent union.
There have been lots of funding earmarked and spent (federal and state) on any number of economic development projects geared to “diversifying” Nevada’s economy. We must not be there quite yet. If we were, the unemployment numbers for the state wouldn’t be what they are and we would assume that our corner of Utopia would have unlimited state spending potential because of overflowing state coffers.
Following the theme that maybe the improvements in these quality-of-life areas would best be accomplished with less government rather than more – it would seem very rational to consider that if we had more opportunity for business enterprises to thrive…they might be more inclined to become established here (whether through relocation or start-up)?
This though flies in the face of the current mindset that if government ain’t spending money to make it happen – we aren’t going to get anything accomplished.
More government, doing even bigger and greater things would appear to be the desire of those who believe that more government Is the only possible answer. In spite of the absence of evidence that government can buy economic diversification, continuing to do more of the same seems to be the track things are going to continue.
While the current notion is that government should fill the role of determining those who will succeed (because central planning just simply knows more than the random outcomes of market forces), attempts to stack the deck in favor of those so chosen haven’t seemed to have gotten us much in the way of economic diversification.
Then again, if social engineers and those who care so much more than ordinary people just had a little more cooperation from a more compliant private sector, willing to fork over more taxes – we could really be spending more…
Posted by Doug Busselman at 12/24/2009 6:53 AM 
Categories: Nevada Vision Project
Tags: Interim Finance Committee Nevada Tax Study SCR 37
Categories: Nevada Vision Project
Tags: Interim Finance Committee Nevada Tax Study SCR 37
Comments