Guinn says technology key to avoid burial in $1 billion hole

Thursday, June 15, 2000 | 11:12 a.m.

If Nevada does not look to new technology soon the state will be in a $1 billion hole by 2008, Gov. Kenny Guinn says.

Guinn told several hundred Las Vegas business leaders during an address at the Riviera Hotel Wednesday that recently more than 200 state agencies failed to take advantage of existing technology by not having Internet web pages to keep the public informed. He said he had to order the agencies to establish the sites.

"We cannot run (the state) like a small company," the Republican governor told the members of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce. "If we (keep doing) business the way we do it today, we will be $1 billion short by 2008. ... That will be devastating to us."

During his half-hour speech, Guinn called for a change in Nevada's methodology of government, advocated new technology for the state and urged selective economic diversity to bring in new businesses that pay livable wages.

Guinn, however, offered no plans for achieving those goals because, he said, his "fundamental review" of government is not yet complete. After the meeting, Guinn told reporters that study is expected to be completed by early September.

"There is no question Gov. Guinn's message today is that our state is behind in technology," said Pat Shalmy, president of the chamber that was founded in 1911 and is the fourth largest of its kind in the nation with more than 6,200 members.

"One of the reasons we wanted him to speak to us was that Gov. Guinn is a longtime businessman -- a friend of business who has a good feel for business. He is telling us that technology will have to drive this state over the next 10 years."

Guinn said the state is experiencing problems similar to small but growing businesses -- words that were well understood by members of the organization that is 85 percent comprised of companies with less than 25 employees.

"You grow to the point where you are too big to be little and too little to be big," Guinn said, noting that he cannot resolve that government problem the way banks, utilities, insurance companies and resorts do with mergers and acquisitions.

"The Nevada Revised Statutes won't allow me to acquire Arizona or Utah, so we have to do something else -- we have to look at technology. ... Everything we do today has to be visionary."

Guinn made reference to the Department of Motor Vehicles that last year had up to eight-hour delays for Las Vegas residents because of glitches in its new computers. Guinn said, however, that new technology now allows Nevadans to register their vehicles in a two-minute phone call or in 30 seconds on the Internet.

Guinn said he is proud to have balanced the budget while raising "no one's taxes" and that 1,021 fewer people are on the state's taxpayer-generated payroll because of his hiring freeze. He said visionary measures like privatizing the state's workers' compensation system will benefit a lot of small business operators in the future.

Guinn said that while diversification from a heavily based gaming economy is good, he wants to be selective in the type of businesses that are recruited to Nevada.

New companies that offer low-salaried jobs to heads of households could result in the state having to pick up the tab for their children's medical care, thus defeating the purpose of bringing in more jobs, he said after the meeting.

Guinn told reporters that neighboring Arizona recruits only those businesses that would bring in at least $50,000-a-year jobs.

To accomplish changes, Guinn said, he sees a struggle between the administrative and legislative branches of government, "but right will win out."