Fighting for a Stronger Economy for All

Southern Nevada's Economy Is Hurting

Southern Nevada home prices have plunged 26.8% over the past year.  Unemployment in Clark County has worsened to 5.5% from 4.4% a year ago. Area gaming revenues and hotel occupancy declined 4.8% and 4.1% respectively.

How Do We Turn It Around?

I am a local business owner with a proven track record creating jobs, enterprises and wealth over the past two decades. I know what it takes for businesses to succeed. I know what it takes for the State of Nevada to succeed. It takes a bold plan to invest in our community, to invest in our future. This is my blueprint for economic revitalization.

Transform the Business Climate in Nevada

Attracting new businesses with good jobs is the key to our economic future. As both a student of history and a creator of business ventures, I understand the raw ingredients necessary for success. Access to money and talent, a viable market and low taxes are all critical. Regional banks are reeling and credit markets have frozen. Nevada's education system is far from the envy of the world at either the public school or university level. Population growth is slowing as the building boom on the strip is not materializing into higher tourism rates and better jobs. While we are a state with no personal or corporate income taxes, there are a lot of fees levied in an awkward, uncoordinated manner unnecessarily driving up the cost of compliance. Awareness and acknowledgment are the first steps to progress. We have a lot to work on to get better.

More importantly, there is a certain intangible factor that creates the cradle of innovation that attracts talent from around the world into a mixing bowl of ideas and culture. Las Vegas has all the raw ingredients, being the entertainment capital of the world surrounded by natural wonders forming a culture of excitement and highly valued lifestyle. The true innovator discovers how to find and provide the smallest missing part that will convert the already existing elements of knowledge, talent and capital into a new and a much more important whole.

I believe the missing ingredient to transforming Las Vegas into a world -class business center is a concentration of world-class universities with strong science and engineering programs. If our state could attract MIT or Stanford to establish Las Vegas satellite campuses as part of a renewable energy research center, we would see the talent, venture capital and product development flow from that, as it did in San Francisco and Boston, making Las Vegas the next Silicon Valley, while solving our energy needs. Making long-term investments in our future is essential. This is the kind of innovative leadership I want to bring to our state.

Create a Vibrant Renewable Energy Industry with Good Jobs

I believe the key to economic revitalization in Southern Nevada is to develop a world-class renewable energy industry. To do that, the state will have to invest funds to get the ball rolling and attract private investment. Public sector investments may include:

• Credit guarantees or tax breaks for businesses willing to build solar, wind or geothermal plants in Nevada
• Building new transmission lines to connect renewable energy plants to the power grid, paid for by "right of way" fees charged to power generators
• Increased incentives for homeowners and businesses to install solar hot water or photovoltaic solar energy systems.

I propose Nevada and the other southwest states form the Southwest Renewable Energy Cooperative as a new vehicle for building renewable energy plants and transmission facilities, as well as retrofitting homes and buildings with solar power. This will create tens of thousands of good paying jobs, break our dependence on Middle East oil, and protect our environment. I am proposing nothing short of a green energy version of the New Deal.

Restore Confidence in Local Housing Market

Nevada's housing market has been crushed over the past two years. The paralysis of the credit markets after the subprime mortgage crisis pushed home building into recession. My friend Greg Farrell, an investigator reporter for USA Today, has recently written an article documenting how fraud, not speculation, was a primary cause ("Las Vegas called ‘mortgage fraud ground zero', USA Today, June 2, 2008). The FBI refers to Las Vegas as "mortgage fraud ground zero." Political battles over tougher mortgage regulation have been on-going in Nevada for the past decade.

Our state needs a real plan for smart, effective oversight of mortgage lending and the right people to be the watchdog. New Century Financial Corp. was one of the worst abusers of the subprime market, went bankrupt and is the subject of numerous investigations and lawsuits. Why would our governor appoint their in-house lawyer as the head of the Nevada Mortgage Lending Division? As a Certified Fraud Examiner, Certified Public Accountant and business owner, I have a higher expectation.