Building Jobs Coalition

An essential element of Nevada’s ability to recover is needed investment in the state’s roads and highways; its schools and universities; its water, sewer and flood control infrastructure; and its hospitals, prisons and other government facilities. It is vitally important that Nevada not only stop the diversion of money away from these programs but also find ways to accelerate their construction. It is also imperative that Nevada-based companies, employing Nevada-based workers, are given first priority for all state and local projects. This puts Nevada’s construction and development workers back to work while at the same time positioning the economy for future growth.

The Building JobsCoalition’s origins are in the construction and development industries, but its focus is broad- based. Today, there are more than 180,000 Nevada residents actively looking for work, translating into the highest rate of unemployment in the United States. Getting construction workers back on the job will require wide-spread economic recovery. To this end, the Coalition is working together with other industries, legislators and other community leaders to develop and vet a series of job-creation strategies.

This white paper is a working draft of those strategies. It is not offered as, nor intended to be, a comprehensive solution. Rather, it is a compilation of ideas developed through research, discussions with legislators in and out of Nevada, and input from industry leaders. Some strategies may be mutually exclusive; others may be proven infeasible. That said, the ultimate objective of this exercise is to refine this document over the next several months so that vetted, actionable strategies that can be delivered to the Nevada State Legislature in advance of convening its 2011 Regular Session.