Northern Nevada’s deal sweet as Tesla’s

The cloud of confetti in Carson City is still settling from the celebration after the announcement that Tesla Motors has decided to build its enormous battery factory in Northern Nevada.

With the exception of those who openly wonder whether Nevada, in keeping with a long tradition, gave away the store to win a big customer, the announcement has provided another political parade for Gov. Brian Sandoval. Against criticism that the deal too heavily favors Tesla, Sandoval has countered that the battery factory over two decades will generate $100 billion in economic activity in Nevada — a jolt by anyone’s measure.

Thanks to a staggering $1.3 billion in public subsidies, tax inducements and even a free road, Tesla chief Elon Musk has scored a coup for his company. Stinking sales and property taxes? Tesla won’t pay no stinking sales and property taxes for a decade.

Meanwhile, eventually the factory is projected to produce an estimated 6,500 jobs in Northern Nevada. But that projection will be hard to meet, according to a Lux Research analysis in an article published this week in the Los Angeles Times.

A good argument can be made that Tesla, headquartered in Palo Alto with a car factory in Fremont, Calif., picked the proper location near Sparks in Storey County. But Southern Nevadans may be wondering whether this end of the state was ever under serious consideration.

Was the north-south playing field level? Is our warehouse and industrial infrastructure ready to welcome such a behemoth?

Ask the first question, and you’ll get conflicting responses. But as to whether the Apex Industrial Park is primed and prepared for the next Tesla, the answer is unequivocally no. It lacks the necessary infrastructure to accommodate the needs of a large project.

At the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance, president and CEO Tom Skancke is positive the Tesla deal will mean good things for Southern Nevada — if only because it reminds the world we are open for business and capable of attracting a cutting-edge company.

“To get a company like Tesla looking as seriously as they did at our state is a great victory,” Skancke says. “That’s going to raise Nevada’s profile regionally, nationally, and globally. … This is great for our state.”

The deal is the buzz of the nation’s business networks and publications. That could open many doors — if Southern Nevada is in position to benefit. By one estimate, getting the Apex project ready — with the necessary water, sewer, power, and asphalt infrastructure in place — will cost approximately $100 million. Although as ever it would benefit those who control the real estate, it would be money well spent in the long run.

But we have to be ready, Skancke says, and that will take money.

“Southern Nevada needs to wake up and realize we’re not prepared for what we could get,” Skancke says, noting that a lack of suitable space has cost Southern Nevada 18,000 jobs in recent months.

There’s no question that Northern Nevada has benefited from priority government funding for infrastructure and that millions of those dollars were generated in the south. This is nothing new, and it’s long past time the practice ended.

Although I’m betting the Tesla special session of the Legislature won’t spend a lot of time ruminating on that subject, our legislators ought to demand that equal share of funding be returned to Southern Nevada.

According to one official’s estimate, in recent years Northern Nevada has received approximately $1.3 billion in infrastructure funding compared with $475 million for the south.

In struggling North Las Vegas, which could have used the Tesla battery plant, Mayor John Lee chooses his words carefully.

“When I was in the state Legislature, we worked to protect our state by carefully allocating resources from our robust tourism industry in the south to repair and build the rest of the state, and I am thrilled those subsidized investments have given the northern counties this exciting opportunity to begin to control their own destiny,” Lee says. “I look forward to working with the state to begin replicating these economic successes in the south where the state’s largest workforce has so generously supported the state over the past few decades and provided the tax subsidies that attracted Tesla to Northern Nevada.”

The Tesla deal includes a dandy new road, but doesn’t state where those millions will come from. Will they be peeled away from funding for Southern Nevada’s overdue road projects?

I’ll bet the answer is yes.

Better luck next time, Southern Nevada.

John L. Smith’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Email him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0295. Follow him on Twitter @jlnevadasmith.