Disposable income up for Nevada’s black population

Thursday, May 8, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Nevada's black population has registered the third highest increase in disposable income in the nation since 1990.

Idaho was first and Utah second.

According to a study released Wednesday by the University of Georgia, blacks in Nevada have experienced a nearly 104 percent increase in buying power, meaning the amount of money left over after taxes.

The buying power of black people nationwide went up 54.2 percent nationwide since 1990 -- from $304 billion to $469 billion -- according to the study.

States with the highest black buying power are New York, expected to reach $53 billion this year; California, $39.5 billion; Texas, $31.4 billion; Illinois, $26.3 billion; and Georgia, $26 billion.

However, Idaho had the fastest black income growth in the seven-year period with 160 percent growth, followed by Utah with 137 percent and Nevada.

"All the leading states have relatively small black populations, so statistically that's very easy to double," said Jeffrey M. Humphreys, director of economic forecasting at the Georgia university.

Keith Schwer, director of UNLV's Center for Business and Economic Research, balked at the idea that the percent increase hinges solely on the success of a smaller black population.

"Those states have the strongest economies. That's where the growth has been," Schwer said. "I would be concerned if those communities were growing and the African-Americans weren't sharing in the growth."

Bob Bailey, chairman of the Black Republican Roundtable in Las Vegas, said the increase was encouraging, but potentially deceiving.

The study "doesn't mean African-Americans are not still in trouble," Bailey said.

He was more interested in comparing the cost of living of blacks with the cost of livings of nonblacks in various communities, not raw increases. He said that although black buying power is said to have increased more than 54 percent nationally, that power still lags behind that of nonblacks.

The study did not look at how the money is spent or make comparisons with the spending power of other ethnic groups.