LVGEA exec an ardent proponent of education — with the degrees to back it up

Is this the year the state Legislature finally turns the corner and does something to boost Nevada’s woeful education system?

Jonas Peterson, president and chief economic development officer for the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance is optimistic, even though many of the professionals that are part of the alliance have led the fight against taxes that would generate more revenue for the state education system.

Peterson is a strong proponent for education and has the degrees to prove it.

Knowing early on that economic development was something he was destined to do, Peterson was a part of award-winning teams in economic development before being scooped up by the group formerly known as the Nevada Development Authority in 2013 as its chief operating officer.

Question: You recently received a promotion to president and chief economic development officer at the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance. How will your responsibilities change?

Answer: Our team is still the same. Tom (Skancke) is still leading the team as our CEO, but we’re going to increase my role in some legislative work and broaden some of the functions internally over economic development.

Question: Gov. Brian Sandoval and his office revamped the way the state approaches economic development. Do you think it’s been successful?

Answer: I do. ... What Nevada does well is having a system that gives us flexibility at different levels to be successful. We have a state structure, a regional structure and local entities that are all working together that meet on a monthly basis and share the same database and are working under the same incentive structure and have shared marketing programs. We have structures in place that are all designed to do what they do best. In our case, as the regional entity, we’re empowered to leverage the private sector, to build upon those private-sector leaders to build client relationships and to implement the strategic plan. That’s what we do well. In other states, I don’t think that’s the case.

Question: Some people are still skeptical that offering economic incentives to companies considering a move is proper. What’s your assessment?

Answer: Incentives are absolutely necessary. If you look at a comparative map that shows what other states are offering as incentives compared to what Nevada is able to provide, it’s shocking. With a much smaller pod of incentives, we get a high volume of client activity. So the logical question becomes, “If we had a little bit more, what would our future look like?” In our role at the LVGEA, we have the ability to see some of those missed opportunities, those huge clients that come through the pipeline that want to locate here, but we lose them at some stage. Sometimes, it’s because of competing incentives. About 15 percent of the clients that followed our pipeline get bought away by other states. They wanted to come here, but when someone is dangling a big check in front of you, it can be a good incentive.

Question: What were your thoughts when it was announced that Tesla was bringing its battery gigafactory to Nevada?

Answer: It was big news in economic development. It’s part of the success story that is the entire state of Nevada. We are now No. 2 or 3 in the country in job growth rate per capita. We get beat out by states like North Dakota that, arguably, have an unfair advantage with oil shale formations under them. Up north, we have the Tesla investment. In the south, we have roughly $12 billion just in the larger projects scheduled to move forward in the next two to three years. If you look at comparable markets in that 2 million population area, I would challenge someone to find a market that has that kind of job growth and capital investment.

Question: Do you think there are still some big deals on the horizon for Southern Nevada?

Answer: Over the last two years, we’ve seen a spike in our pipeline and our results, jobs and capital investment. Last year was the first full year of implementing our strategic plan and we doubled the amount of jobs that we attracted as an organization. We’ve seen that pipeline plateau over the last year. It’s plateaued at a higher rate, but the volume has been consistent so we think 2015 is going to be another high-volume year based on what we’ve been able to do historically.

Question: What do you think is the next big economic frontier for Nevada?

Answer: At least a couple come to mind. Unmanned aircraft systems — the UAV industry — is going to be huge. The timing of when that truly takes flight is yet to be seen. But when that happens over the next five to seven years, the forecast is around 10,000 jobs to that industry. If we can build a community that can be attractive not only to testing — I think we’re going to get the testing — but to research and development and manufacturing from some of those (unmanned aircraft systems) players, the opportunities there are endless for us. It’s a huge opportunity.

The other one that comes to mind is logistics, warehousing and distribution. They tend to produce a high volume of jobs. If and when we can connect Las Vegas to Phoenix with Interstate 11, we become the route for goods movement from Mexico all the way up to Canada.

And, you can’t overlook what’s happening in technology. We are on the national and international radar for hotspots of technology development. Look at what Switch is doing with its recent multibillion-dollar investment. It’s huge and it continues that growth pattern. Look at Zappos and the Downtown Project. It gets us in front of clients and moves the brand forward.

Question: Gov. Sandoval has always said education is an important component of economic development, yet many of the companies that support the LVGEA say the reason they came to Nevada was for the friendly business and tax environment and they don’t want to see taxes raised for education. How do we get past this conundrum?

Answer: Education and economic development are inextricably linked. In fact, our work in economic development here and around the country are seeing their work shifting more into the workforce development field.

Companies tell us, “I want that high-quality workforce,” especially the high-value companies. They say, “The most important factor in my relocation decision is whether or not I can find the right workforce today and whether or not I will be able to find it three years down the road.” We need to be not only in the game, but a leader in workforce development. I commend the governor for his bold vision of really transforming our education system. As we move down that road, there are huge implications for economic development. Today, we lose roughly 30 percent of the companies in our pipeline — those missed opportunities —because of education. It’s our biggest limiting factor. If we can move up the rankings, it means a lot more jobs, economic impact and capital investment.