Blueprint for Nevada

Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011 | 2:01 a.m.

As the Legislature sat in joint session Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid delivered a thoughtful vision of Nevada’s future that was unmistakable in tone, coming from a man who has invested a lifetime promoting the well-being of this state. The media undoubtedly will focus on a single aspect of Reid’s address, his sensible call for the state to outlaw prostitution.

Reid is right that it is time for Nevada to have an adult conversation about the brothels in rural counties because of negative images those enterprises represent, both to families who live in the state and others who are thinking of opening businesses here.

“Nevada needs to be known as the first place for innovation and investment — not as the last place where prostitution is still legal,” he said.

It would be a mistake, though, to ignore the larger point made by the native of Searchlight. Nevada will have a greater chance of regaining its footing by pursuing a course that makes the state economically competitive in the 21st century. Cleaning up its image by addressing prostitution is but one way the state can recover from the Great Recession’s double-digit unemployment and rampant home foreclosures.

Reid said Nevada won’t be competitive if legislators continue to slash funding for grade school and university education. The state can no longer afford to wallow along the bottom nationally in education spending. As Reid aptly said: “We’re beyond asking our schools and universities to trim their budgets, or do more with less. These cuts, and calls for more cuts, undermine our most important goal: preparing Nevada’s students for the global economy. If our priority is producing a workforce that can compete with the rest of the world, let’s legislate that way.”

It is also painfully evident that Nevada needs to diversify its economy far beyond the tourism industry that has carried this state since the 1950s. Reid has taken the lead in promoting an emerging green energy industry that can take advantage of Nevada’s plentiful renewable resources to produce jobs and clean up the environment while helping wean this nation off its reliance on foreign oil.

Legislators should have taken notice when Reid said: “Nevada is already the hub of renewable energy — our solar, wind and geothermal potential is unbeatable. Our challenge, then, is to make Nevada the hub of the renewable energy industry.”

Investing in education and promoting development of renewable resources go hand in hand. Pursuing a strategy as complex as competitiveness in today’s challenging global economy also requires another key resource — experienced elected officials who are well versed in public policy and the possibilities of good government. That is why Nevada should take Reid’s advice by getting rid of term limits for state and local officeholders.

Term limits were sold as ways to bring fresh ideas into government, but the cost has been too high because it forced many of the state’s most knowledgeable and experienced public servants into premature retirement. It is during these trying times when such leadership is needed most.

As Reid said: “We don’t need artificial term limits. After all, we already have natural ones. They’re called elections. Anyone serving today should be able to serve at the will of the voters — the people of Nevada.”

We could not have said it any better.