Greater accountability for a greater Las Vegas

Jeremy Aguero

Friday, Sept. 5, 2008 | 2:03 a.m.

Today’s guest Where I Stand columnist is Jeremy Aguero, a principal analyst with the Las Vegas-based economic, fiscal and policy research firm Applied Analysis.

It is no secret that Nevada is facing a remarkably challenging period. We are an economy in recession.

People are losing their jobs and their homes. Families are finding their paychecks are stretched thin, with higher prices at the pump only the most visible sign of inflation. Visitors are coming less, consumers are spending less and banks are lending less.

While it would be overly optimistic to believe the worst of this economic cycle is behind us, it would be equally tenuous to suggest the declines will persist indefinitely.

Southern Nevada’s immediate economic challenges may not be the greatest problem we face. The entitlement mentality that has gripped our community is blind to economic cycles and, as much as anything, threatens to relieve the region of its long-run potential.

Although some might posit otherwise, we are not entitled to the nation’s highest rates of population, employment and income growth. We are not entitled to have 39 million visitors spend tens of billions of dollars each year in our community and subsidize our individual liability for essential public services. We are not entitled to high-achieving schools, congestion-free freeways, low-crime neighborhoods or four-minute emergency response times. Low rates of household and general business taxation are neither a birthright nor a privilege of residency.

Southern Nevada has earned both its successes and its failures, and I would argue that the former more than outweigh the latter. This balance, however, is a delicate one.

The minimalist approach to public services that has served our state does not eliminate the need for individual responsibility; in fact, it increases it.

Consider the contributions to this community that have come from names such as Cashman, Greenspun, Harrah, Tiberti, Boyd, Molasky, Wynn, Bunker and Gibson. The generation that followed, my generation, has been quick to forget the value of these contributions and slow to follow in the contributors’ footsteps.

As a lifelong Southern Nevadan, I owe a debt of gratitude to these and other individuals and families for the opportunities I have had and those available to my three children.

In response to community challenges, we have been quick to criticize, point fingers at one another and vilify our elected officials and public servants. Although vital information is more readily available than ever, it is obtained by many only through headlines and sound bites, and the critical mass needed to turn apathy to action has been obscured behind a mountain of economic prosperity.

For a generation that has never experienced the hardship of an economic downturn, and that tends to approach our community as if it were a cash cow, it is all too easy to find a scapegoat.

Those who came before us did not leave a community devoid of problems or promise. That said, if you think any person in the Las Vegas Valley cares more about the education of your children than Schools Superintendant Walt Rulffes, you are wrong. If you think Regional Transportation Commission boss Jacob Snow does not stay up nights thinking about how to get people to work faster or visitors here more efficiently, you are misinformed. If you think anyone cares more about safe neighborhoods than Sheriff Doug Gillespie or more about getting someone to your home in the event of an emergency than Fire Chief Steve Smith, you need to reconsider your position. Although their approaches could not be more different, if you think Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley and state Sen. Bob Beers are not working tirelessly to keep the economy and the state moving forward, you are fooling yourself. And for those who believe elected officials such as Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury have not given in endless measure, I would recommend a one-way bus ticket.

For many people, Las Vegas represents a pleasant fiction. For those of us who call it home, its realities are all too apparent. Managing our delicate balance through challenging economic times will take leadership and compromise as well as public support in response to political courage.

I know not a single Las Vegas business owner who does not value education, transportation and public health and safety. I know not a single gaming operator who does not believe in the merits of government efficiency. Rhetoric and pretext aside, the way of life we are attempting to preserve is a common denominator.

If this column is supposed to answer “Where I Stand,” I respond with two feet firmly planted in the Las Vegas Valley. I believe in this community. I believe in the opportunity that it presents for my children and their children.

If we, my generation, are willing to learn from those who came before us; if we make the investments that are necessary; if we are willing to stand behind the core values that have made us prosperous; if we are willing to accept individual responsibility for our children’s success and the community we will leave them, I believe tomorrow can be better than today.