A show of sympathy for our joblessness

By Steve Kanigher

Saturday, July 10, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.

President Barack Obama used his 20 minutes at UNLV’s Student Union on Friday to tell Nevadans that he understands the pain caused by high unemployment but that he has a strategy to create more jobs.

Although he has visited Nevada frequently ever since announcing his candidacy for president, this was his first trip to the state when it has led the nation in unemployment, with a 14 percent rate reached in May.

The nation has added private-sector jobs in each of the past six months, but Obama said: “The unemployment rate is still unacceptably high, particularly in some states like Nevada. And a lot of you have felt that pain personally or you’ve got somebody in your family who’s felt the pain.

“Maybe you found yourself underwater on your mortgage and faced the terrible prospect of losing your home. Maybe you’re out of work and worried about how you’re going to provide for your family. Or maybe you’re a student at UNLV and you’re wondering if you’re going to be able to find a job when you graduate, or if you’re going to be able to pay off your student loans, or if you’re going to be able to start your career off on the right foot.”

One path Obama said he is pursuing is to insist that Congress increase clean energy manufacturing tax credits by $5 billion, more than doubling the credits available last year. That alone would add 40,000 jobs, but he predicted it would also trigger $12 billion in private-sector investment and an additional 90,000 jobs. Essentially, a business venture that agrees to put up 70 percent of the financing would get a 30 percent match from the government.

Nevada potentially could benefit from the increased tax credits as it attempts to position itself as a world leader in clean energy production from solar, wind and geothermal sources.

Obama also touted passage this year of legislation that will involve overseas advertising to lure more tourists to the United States. Promoting tourism, he said, will “bring folks here to enjoy the incredible hospitality.”

As for efforts undertaken by his administration to increase employment, he said:

“We fought to keep Nevada teachers and firefighters and police officers on the job, and to extend unemployment insurance and COBRA so folks have health insurance while they’re looking for work.”

Here’s how some of those attending the speech reacted to Obama:

• Former state Sen. Joe Neal of North Las Vegas: “You have to understand that people in (lower-income West Las Vegas) are survivors. We’ve been through a lot. Of course, the issues that he’s raised with small business and research and development money ... will certainly help people who have ideas. They can go to the bank with an idea and the government will put up 30 percent. We’ve got a lot of people in the black community throughout the country, not only here in Las Vegas, who have great ideas that they would like to put forth, but they need to get access to the capital. With the government stepping up and saying, ‘OK you bring a good idea and get private industry to take a look at it, we’ll put up 30 percent of that’ ... That would help us out a great deal.”

• Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller: “It was a very impressive speech. Hopefully, the tax credit goes through in the Senate. We can certainly, as the president stated, use the jobs out here in Nevada.

“With unemployment as high as it is we need to really create some incentives for businesses to be able to relocate, as we’ve tried to work on through whynevada.com and some of our economic development websites. We’ve tried to point out that Nevada can and should be the hub for clean energy, which is what the tax credits are all about. If you provide those types of incentives, I believe the businesses will come.”

• Frank Mir, Las Vegas mixed-martial arts fighter and former heavyweight titleholder in the Mixed Martial Arts Championship: “I feel that all the things that should be done right now are being done. I’m willing to believe it will take more than 18 months to fix everything. I’m very happy about the tax credit for green energy. I couldn’t believe it’s actually an issue with anybody.”

Mir also supports the president’s vow that a federal grant for electric vehicle manufacturers will enable the United States to go from 2 percent of the global market share in batteries to 40 percent within five years.

“I’m still with the old phrase that we need to get off the foreign oil so going toward alternative sources of energy is a long-term goal for us that we need to eventually come to. Going from 2 percent of the market to 40 percent in five years blows my mind. That’s a huge step in the right direction.”

But Mir said he is disappointed that there hasn’t been more relief for individuals struggling to keep their homes, especially from banks that have been bailed out.

“The banks are getting a break. Why isn’t it passing down to the average citizen here?”

• Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev.: “It’s about jobs. That’s what they wanted to hear, about the new solar jobs and stimulus jobs.”

As for boosting tourism, she said: “I like it when he says he’s back in Vegas and he loves Vegas because he has a little fence-mending to do from some earlier comments. But he did mention the Tourism Promotion Act and that’s very important. I was pleased to support that because it’s a public-private partnership that costs no taxpayer dollars, but advertises the U.S. abroad. No one will benefit more from that than Las Vegas.”

• UNLV Economics Department Chairman Stephen Miller: “In terms of the economy there is one statement he made that was significant, which is in his view the economy is heading in the right direction. And I think he’s right. There’s a lot of uncertainty, though, because a lot of pundits are talking about the possibility of a double-dip (recession).

“Probably all the president could say is that he had sympathy for the residents of Nevada, given the large number of homeowners underwater and the highest unemployment rate in the country. We were in free fall for about three years, and looking at the numbers we’re probably at the bottom right now.”

As for Obama’s emphasis on developing a clean energy industry, Miller said “government shouldn’t be in the business of picking winners and losers but in this area, clean energy, there’s almost a consensus that we have to develop alternative energy at some point. We can’t continue to rely on oil. There is some short-term benefit in terms of construction jobs but the real benefit will be long-run to the extent this industry really takes off.”

Miller acknowledged that UNLV stands to benefit from increased investment in clean energy research. “It’s an example that shows how the private sector and higher education can mutually support each other to achieve economic growth. It also illustrates how the government can set rules to help a new industry develop.”

• UNLV assistant professor Kenneth Fernandez, who teaches political science: “If you listen to Obama’s speech, he talked about how the government is trying to work with the private sector, that the private sector is the key to the economic growth in this country and how they (the Democrats) are cutting taxes or having tax credits.

“That’s a twist on the standard belief of how the Republicans are trying to depict Democrats. And I think it’s a purposeful argument, particularly in Nevada, where the Tea Party has had a good amount of success. And their angst is often about too big of government. The speech addressed the fact that, no, we’re not the enemy of the private sector, we’re the friend of the private sector.”