Nevada economy yields more revenue for state

CARSON CITY - Nevada's slowly improving economy has produced $58.9 million more in state tax revenue than expected and should add 10,000 to 15,000 workers this year, a state committee was told Monday.

Economic Forum members listened as state agency officials and private industry leaders spoke of how the economy is rising out of an abyss but won't be returning to the 2004-06 glory days anytime soon.

Through April, state tax revenue reached $2.241 billion, 2.7 percent more than the forum predicted in May 2011.

While Gov. Brian Sandoval and legislators will decide how to spend the unexpected revenue, the governor has mentioned the state needs to find an additional $100 million a year for Medicaid, the free health care program for the poor, disabled and some elderly.

More Nevadans will qualify for the program if the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is upheld as constitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on the constitutionality of the federal law this month.

The Economic Forum is a five-member committee of industry leaders who calculate how much money state government can spend. The projection it makes in December will be binding on Sandoval as he prepares a state budget for the July 1, 2013, to June 30, 2015, period.

The $58.9 million is less than 2 percent of state government's $3.2 billion annual general fund spending.

MINING DOING WELL

The most promising sector of the economy continues to be the mining industry.

Nevada Mining Association President Tim Crowley told the forum that the gold in Long Canyon, east of Elko, could be as abundant as the Carlin Trend has been over the past quarter century. The five-by-40-mile trend west of Elko has produced more gold than anyplace else in the country.

Production in Long Canyon is expected to start in 2014 or 2015. Newmont Mining Co. bought the mining area last year for $2.3 billion.

Crowley said mining employs 16,000 Nevadans at average annual wages of $83,000, highest of any occupation in the state. About 1,500 mining employees have been hired by companies this year.

"We have a very health industry," he said, predicting increases in the annual production of gold.

Crowley also reported on the growth and opening of new lithium mines. Lithium is used in cellphone and laptop computer batteries.

"It is easy to think of a guy going out in the desert with a pick as a miner, but today it is civil engineers, mechanical engineers, mining engineers, geological engineers," he said.

ECONOMY SLOWLY IMPROVING

Crowley's optimism was a sharp contrast to state Chief Economist Bill Anderson and his projections of 1 percent to 2 percent annual job growth in Nevada, or 10,000 to 15,000 workers a year.

But Anderson said that for the first time since 2008, the number of employers in the state has risen, and there was a growth in wages.

"The economy has a long way to go to regain what we lost, but, nevertheless, the economy is turning in the right direction," Anderson said.

He placed the real unemployment rate in Nevada at 22 percent, not the 11.7 percent that has been officially reported. The total rate includes people who have given up looking for jobs, or now settle for part-time work because they cannot find full-time jobs.

Although jobs and wages are growing, Nevada employers in the nine months ending March 31 paid $267.7 million in modified business, or payroll taxes, a 7 percent decline from estimates.

Rossi Ralenkotter, president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, told forum members he expects a record 40 million visitors to Las Vegas this year. So far in 2012, visitorship is up 2.4 percent .

Although revenue is rising, the "recession still impacts us," he said.

"It is all about the economy," he added. "Whatever happens anywhere in the world truly affects Las Vegas."

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.