LETTER: The business opportunity Nevada needs
The headline that Las Vegas suffered a decline in visitors for the sixth straight month resulting in an annualized 12 percent decline in visitors is half the story. The other half is that, for the second time, Nevada lawmakers passed on the opportunity to diversify our economy beyond gaming and hospitality by energizing a new film industry investment.
Assembly Bill 238 would have provided for $1.8 billion in transferable tax credits as incentives to lure studios away from Hollywood and Georgia to create an incubator of a new addition to our economy. It seems that our state Senate members confused a tax credit with an out-of-pocket cost and failed to factor in the benefits of diversifying our fragile gaming-dependent economy.
Integrating a content-creation industry into our valley’s ecosystem would close the missing link between the education program in UNLV’s unique Entertainment Engineering and Design Program and complete the chain to link into our avant-garde local performance venues. For example, the MSG Sphere currently develops the content in the more studio-friendly Burbank, California.
What a shame that our lawmakers lack the vision by passing on picking this low-hanging fruit that could have neutralized the recent 12 percent visitor decline.