Nevada starting to see effect of stimulus money; ‘too little, too late,’ consultant says

Nevada is starting to see a trickle of stimulus money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, creating some new employment and improving infrastructure -- but it's far too little and too late for 65,000 construction workers who lost jobs during the recession, a Las Vegas business consultant said Wednesday.

The state is estimated to receive $2.3 billion in federal funding, with $2.1 billion of that coming by the end of the first quarter 2010, Jeremy Aguero of Applied Analysis reported in a second-quarter market briefing prepared for the Las Vegas chapter of Associated General Contractors.

The actual amount received was $1.53 billion, roughly 66 percent of the total. The largest share of the funds ($537 million) has been dedicated to extending unemployment benefits, while the next-largest share ($353 million) is going to health and human services.

"If you look at where the stimulus is going, how the funds were allocated and how unemployment is allocated, it's a pretty clear focus of where we're placing the stimulus money," Aguero said. "Very little of it is going to put people back to work."

The state estimates that 4,194 jobs have been created through stimulus expenditures. Of those, 73 percent were sourced to two stimulus programs: the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund for Education and the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund for Government Services.

Grants to the Nevada Department of Education created 304 jobs, while $5 million in Community Development Block Grants generated about 100 positions.

Aguero said Las Vegas has seen sporadic month-to-month job growth, mostly due to seasonality.

"Right now, it's been pretty limited," he said. "We're 35 months into the worst recession we've seen in our lifetime. It's time to get those people back to work."

Tom Brede, press secretary for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said many reports on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act fail to mention that one-third of the money is in the form of tax cuts.

Also, the act contains provisions such as debt cancellation that Harrah's Entertainment credited with protecting 30,000 jobs in Nevada alone, he said.

"It's clear that the stimulus bill prevented a bad situation from becoming worse," Brede said from Washington, D.C. "From tax credits for middle-class families and clean energy development to the creation of thousands of jobs in transportation and education, the stimulus bill has had a positive impact on Nevada."

The U.S. government's official website www.recovery.gov reported 9,294 job recipients in Nevada from April through June, $1.72 billion in total funds awarded from February 2009 through June and $759.4 million in funds received.

With significant oversupply in residential and commercial markets, the fate of Southern Nevada's construction industry relies heavily on public infrastructure investment, Aguero said.

Some of the projects fueled with stimulus funding include tunnel work at McCarran International Airport, wastewater treatment facilities and freeway and road construction, the research analyst said.

The trailing 12-month series showed Southern Nevada employment of 805,167 in June, including 53,975 construction jobs. That's down from 807,150 total employment and 55,350 construction jobs in the previous month.

Aguero said one bit of good news is the extended "sunset" date on the quarter-cent sales tax increase that goes toward road construction in Nevada. That freed up about $200 million and got some people back to work, he said .

Contact reporter Hubble Smith at hsmith@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0491.