Former Lt. Governor Looks Brightly at Nevada Challenges in 2015

New Year Brings New Opportunities

Lorraine Hunt-Bono 

Former Nevada Lt. Governor

The Challenges We Face

Today in Nevada and America, we live in rapidly changing times.

The rich heritage of abundant opportunities for hard-working entrepreneurial men and women in America could be slowly eroding and slipping through our fingers.

Our younger generations may not have the same advantages for success that those of us had in past decades.

Many of the opportunities and successes we experienced were due to hard work, long range planning, and short- and long-term goals, accompanied by clear thinking.

These are the seeds for success, but seeds must be sown in fertile ground.

Our country has been the fertile loam, the rich earth, where these seeds of entrepreneurial success were planted.

Achieving the American dream does not happen by accident. America is a purposeful breeding ground that is the product of public policy decisions, and these decisions are made by the men and women elected by the people.

As individuals, through our vote in the ballot box, we have the power to tilt the scales to higher fertile fields of entrepreneurial ism and the free market philosophy or to weight the scales down to rigid regulations and higher taxes to fund more government control over our lives.

Our Heritage Guides Us

We need to analyze how we arrived where we are today, how we reach the milestones in our lives, and how we can leave fertile ground so that our children and grandchildren can sow their own seeds of success.

We should not allow those who are expert at focusing on issues that trigger our emotions rather than our intellect to influence us.

My Italian heritage should remind us that our ancestors left the flag of the green, white, and red to come to the land of the red, white, and blue.

They left, escaping a corrupt, controlling government, so that they could provide a better life for themselves and their children.

They braved the unknown for the opportunity to work, buy a home, and give their children a better education.

The fertile fields of American capitalism is the environment that provided the seeds of entrepreneurial success - an environment where the free market determines the production, distribution, and price of goods and services mainly by competition, and where private ownership of goods and property means profit to the owner.

Today, public policy decisions are eroding those same fertile fields.

This is the antithesis of the free market philosophy that made America great.

Through advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods and services, today, many public policies seek to distribute property and wealth equally, without taking into account the amount of work an individual performs.

The impact of these misguided public policy decisions and the politicians who make them are changing the landscape for future generations and limiting their entrepreneurial opportunities for success.

If this trend continues, our children and grandchildren will not have the opportunities we have enjoyed.

Nevada's Success

Growing up is never easy; we are faced with serious questions and the answers are best addressed by first reflecting on the fertile fields and how they have served us so well in the past.

In Nevada, the tax structure has afforded businesses a unique opportunity to grow, prosper, and reinvest in the state. When I say unique, let's quickly look at why these fields have been so productive.

Nevada has no state corporation income tax, no personal income tax, and no unitary, franchise, or inventory tax.

Businesses start here, grow here, and relocate here because we are unique in these areas.

Isn't it a fact that the true measure of our personal and corporate economic success is predicted on what we have left after we pay our taxes?

That is why our tax policy is so crucial to the vision we have of the future.

Our success today is a testament to the tremendous dynamic created by a tax policy that is fashioned to maximize profits, spur reinvestment, and encourage risk taking.

Wealth retention is the key to economic success. It creates jobs for the working middle class and more opportunities for those seeking to climb the ladder of success.

In Nevada, this has been our paradigm for generations.

However, as our population has expanded, there are those in Nevada and in America who would choose to shift our paradigm to one that would put us on another course.

It is up to us to determine if we desire to change that course.

2015 Legislative Session

In the upcoming 2015 Legislative Session, it is my hope that under the leadership of Governor Brian Sandoval, new President of the Senate, Lt Governor Mark Hutchinson along with The Nevada State Senate and Assembly will focus on finding sensible solutions creating a practical budget based on the economic reality of current and projected revenues for the biennium.

This is a time for mature decisions that will allow Nevada to maintain and accelerate its current course while maximizing the many global opportunities that are on our doorstep.

The key to meeting our social responsibilities for education, public health and safety and state infrastructure lies in the success and revenues generated by Nevada's small, medium and large businesses.  (It should be noted that 98% of all Nevada businesses are small businesses employing 100 people or less)

 Government needs to unleash the private sector to create more jobs and opportunities for our residents then the "sky's the limit" for Nevada's future in a global economy.

Happy New Year to you and yours.  Enjoy the holidays with family and friends - then let's get to work to enhance our entrepreneurial environment and quality of life for all Nevadans.

The Honorable Lorraine T. Hunt-Bono is a 50-year resident of Nevada. She is a prominent businesswoman, Commissioner on the Nevada Commission on Tourism, a former Lieutenant Governor and President of the Nevada State Senate and chair of The Nevada Business Roundtable.