All Nevadans need to step up to the plate in funding necessary public services in our State. All businesses need to contribute to the tax base of our communities. Gaming though, as a privileged industry, is in a unique situation in that it owes that privilege to the largesse of Nevada government and local communities. Yes, the gaming industry provides the majority of jobs, directly or indirectly, particularly in southern Nevada, and a lifestyle for many that has contributed for many years to a stable and vibrant Nevada economy. Yet, gaming is also the reason for many of our communities’ ills – jammed thoroughfares, diminishing water supply, crowded schools, transient population, unhealthy lifestyles, skyrocketing real estate, and in some ways – crime.
Gaming did not purposefully cause these ills – although some ills seem to go hand-in-hand with the proliferation of this distinctive industry; and yes, Gaming has bestowed its munificence on a number of high– and low-profile community projects – and pays it taxes. The infrastructure, socially & physically, to support the development of a 300+ room hotel & casino is still sorely lagging, & in many cases lacking, let alone a 3,000 room hotel, casino or convention center. Gaming gurus must proactively integrate into their thinking - & funding - the impact of their mega-empires on the community at large. How do 7,000 new employees traverse the valley to their new jobs, and use up our resources, and impact our schools? How do 70,000 new tourists traverse and use up and impact our communities?
Businesses that create quality jobs should be encouraged and rewarded. At the same time, businesses that drain limited resources, strain community infrastructure, and remove “wealth” from our state (wealth that in most any other state would be taxed) to provide jobs and a quality of life for other communities, need to expand their obligation to the “social fiber” of our State.
Las Vegas is a “company town” in that there are not too many businesses thriving that do not have their “raison d'etre” linked to THE INDUSTRY. Without gaming, Las Vegas may have remained a medium sized borough, relatively mid-way between LA and Salt Lake on an uneventful highway. The gaming industry has made Las Vegas. Yet, Las Vegas has made the gaming industry. Las Vegas reshaped gaming into the “recreation of the masses”, and that defining attribute – created and tested in Nevada LEGALLY- has been exported successfully around the globe. Las Vegans have all been guinea pigs and beneficiaries in Gaming’s “Grand Experiment”. And as the Grand Experimenters continue to refine ways to part men and women with their recreational currencies, THE INDUSTRY - as well as other businesses that utilize our resources - owes Nevada.