Editorial: Diversity benefits economy

Monday, Feb. 25, 2002 | 8:46 a.m.

The Henderson City Council gave a big boost to economic diversification last week when it unanimously approved a regional distribution center and office complex on 133 acres south of St. Rose Parkway and Executive Airport Drive. Groundbreaking is set to begin by July and the project is expected to be complete by 2006. The center is envisioned to one day employ no fewer than 1,600 people and perhaps as many as 3,600. While gaming will likely always be the lifeblood of Southern Nevada, the tragedy of Sept. 11 -- and the 12,000 or more layoffs from the hotel-casinos that came with it -- demonstrated the importance of job availability in other fields.

Henderson officials were right to welcome this distribution center and a similar one planned for the area of Warm Springs Road and U.S. 95. Nevada's tax structure and the city's optimum location for transportation of goods combine to create an ideal climate for this clean industry that employs skilled people and generates significant tax dollars. Because the Las Vegas area is a "consuming market," in the words of economic development strategists, trucks historically have arrived here laden with goods but have departed with empty trailers. Distribution centers may be seen much like airport hubs, where planes arrive full of people heading for one destination and depart full of people heading for another. With a distribution center acting as a hub, trucks can arrive full and leave full, thereby increasing their profits while offering highly competitive outbou nd rates. Henderson does well in promoting itself as an attractive location for this type of business as truckers can provi! de same-day service to many markets, including those in California, Arizona and Utah.

While Henderson deserves credit for landing such an impressive new industry, state officials over the decades have also created a climate ripe for economic development. Business executives seeking to locate here have this perspective: There is no corporate income tax, no personal income tax, no franchise tax and no inventory tax. With land in Southern Nevada cheaper and more available than in Southern California, we'd like to see the success achieved with this kind of industry in Henderson and throughout Nevada gain even more momentum. The economic climate has been created for this industry and there is every reason to revive this saying of 30 years ago: Keep on trucking.