Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

EDITORIAL:

Governor offers bold vision to meet the task faced by state legislators

State of the State Address

screenshot from live video

Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak delivers his State of the State address Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021.

With some justification, Gov. Steve Sisolak could have taken a bare-bones approach in drafting his policy blueprint for the upcoming session of the Nevada Legislature. These are extraordinarily difficult economic times, after all, so one option would have been to simply batten down the hatches by proposing an austere budget and maintaining the status quo until the pandemic passes.

But Sisolak chose to go bigger than that. And that’s to his credit, because his plan would not only help Nevada persevere through the economic crisis but would put us on more solid footing after we emerge.

Sisolak offered a vision built around an ambitious set of initiatives to bring new jobs to the state, train workers and shore up Nevada’s infrastructure. In his State of the State address last week, Sisolak said the plan would create up to 30,000 jobs in the short term and as many as 165,000 permanent jobs. In addition, it would put 170,000 construction workers to work over the next 10 years.

And according to Sisolak, it wouldn’t require a tax increase, but rather would be carried out through refocusing existing resources and shifting money in the budget. In fact, the overall budget contains a 2% decrease in state spending.

Here’s how it would work:

• Economic development efforts would be directed toward creating a “new energy economy” and establishing “innovation zones” for new and emerging technology. Sisolak believes the state could attract companies without the use of tax abatements or other publicly funded means.

• Creating a new oversight body for the state’s community colleges, and focusing their mission on job training. Currently, the community colleges are under the umbrella of the Nevada System of Higher Education, which oversees all higher education institutions in the state in a way similar to how a superintendent’s office of a K-12 district manages schools. Sisolak’s plan would create a new independent authority. In addition, he calls for a public-private partnership focused on job training.

• Providing $75 million in state funding to help fast-track infrastructure projects.

• Modernizing a number of state government systems, such as the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation. That department, which handles unemployment claims, practically fell to pieces this year when it was inundated amid business shutdowns and pandemic-related layoffs.

In addition, Sisolak’s budget would increase funding for K-12 schools and higher ed, assuming that Nevada receives federal pandemic funding for education.

Although the state budget includes a $130 million decrease for K-12 and higher ed, the state is expected to receive $550 million under the relief bill passed in December. And President Joe Biden’s stimulus plan, if passed, would put Nevada in line for a share of $175 billion in funding for schools nationally.

“That’s going to be one of the keys to getting Nevada back on its feet,” Sisolak’s chief of staff, Michelle White, said during a recent media briefing. “That is going to be so instrumental in restoring some of the reductions that have had to take place, and also getting our kids back to in-person learning.”

In a related matter, Sisolak restores $25 million in funding for the UNLV School of Medicine and $44 million for Millennium scholarships, both of which will be extraordinarily helpful in Southern Nevada.

Can all of this actually be carried out without a tax increase? That’s a key question as the Legislature prepares to convene Feb. 1 in Carson City.

But the spirit of Sisolak’s plan is spot-on. The pandemic once again showed that Nevada can’t take a business-as-usual approach to our economy, which relies too much on tourism and hospitality. Focusing on new energy and new technologies makes sense, as does beefing up our job-training efforts both to prepare workers for the modern workplace and to retrain those whose jobs are being replaced by automation.

And providing adequate funding for education is critical. Not only do we owe it to our children, but it’s a key to helping bolster our economy. A strong education system is a major attraction for companies looking for places to launch or expand.

Sisolak, in seeing the pandemic not as a reason to cower but rather as an inflection point for Nevada, offered good leadership.

Not all of the details have been unveiled, and no doubt there will be complications as lawmakers begin considering it. But with the session soon to get underway, we urge lawmakers to work constructively toward making Sisolak’s vision a reality.