From the Department of Government is the Problem Not the Solution comes this most excellent quote from Mary Lau of the Retail Association of Nevada (RAN) last week on Sam Shad’s most excellent Nevada Newsmakers program:
“What’s going to solve (Nevada’s economic) problem is a conscious, conservative approach to changing the economy; to expanding the economy. But it also requires consistency when you do that.
“Our economic development authorities, for years, were going after financial institution business. And then the Legislature, in their infinite ‘wisdom’ – and I’ll put quotes around that word – turned around and ran a couple of bills, two sessions in a row, that cost us 4,500 jobs. And those positions, they went to Phoenix, Arizona.”
You see, if the government wants jobs created, the best thing the government can do is to get out of the way of the very people who create jobs and establish a pro-business, rather than anti-business, environment which encourages business and job creation as opposed to discouraging them. Roll out a welcome mat instead of concrete roadblocks.
If the Legislature really wants to help fix the problem, maybe the best thing it can do is stop trying to fix the problem and just get the hell out of the way.