ARE WE REALLY AT THE BOTTOM?

Review Journal Editorial

Democrats love to tell voters that Nevada is at the “bottom of every list ranking all 50 states.”

In fact, though, they exhibit selective amnesia — Nevada is not the cellar-dweller Democrats have made it out to be. A study released Wednesday by the Tax Foundation says Nevada has the fourth-best business tax climate in the country. By comparison, Nevada neighbors Arizona and California ranked 28th and 45th, respectively.

Plaudits for Nevada industry go on and on. In May, Inc. magazine named Las Vegas the nation’s hottest “boom town” for entrepreneurs. In February, the Milken Institute put Las Vegas among its 20 Best Performing Cities, rating its economic performance and ability to create and sustain jobs in the top tier of 379 metropolitan areas surveyed. Entrepreneur magazine recently ranked Las Vegas the nation’s fourth-best big city for new business.

Wow! I guess it doesn’t matter that Nevada ranks at the bottom of the list for education as long as businesses keep springing up. What this editorial doesn’t address is, while applauding the number of new businesses forming, is how many businesses fail after a year or two. And some areas where Las Vegas does top the “list” now is in violent crimes and car theft, identity theft and prescription drug use. (And while alcohol and prescription drug use is rampant, there is an initiative to legalize marijuana use in Nevada. I guess if you give the public cheaper dope and movies on demand, they won’t notice the stink of corruption and the theft of their future.) I personally would rather be at the bottom of those lists.
The editorial also fails to mention that from 2001 to 2005 home prices rose about 30 percent a year while wages only rose 26 percent for the whole five years. (And I bet if you take out the wage raises of the top one percent in Vegas, including casino owners, developers, and the like, that 26 percent would fall.) With 7,000 new residents coming here a month, businesses don’t have to use higher wages to attract workers. The truth is that quality of life, strength of the infrastructure, and the future of our children are at the bottom of the list; paving the Las Vegas valley is at the top of the list.