According to members of the Southern Nevada Building and Construction Trades Council, the Nevada Assembly Democrats’ new Five Point Plan for Job Creation — described below in their press release — calls for 50% local hire on public works projects. This highly commendable recommendation is unprecedented and far surpasses San Francisco’s groundbreaking 20% requirement set forth in a local ordinance last year (a requirement that was surpassed by a whopping 14%).

With outsourcing of jobs becoming a bigger and bigger concern of the American electorate, local hire provides a unique opportunity to undercut the outsourcers: if cities and towns set bold local hire standards it could disable the companies who operate in those cities and towns from shipping jobs overseas and bringing in out-of-state workers unchecked.

Would offshore-happy companies then flee to “outsourcing-friendly” states the same way they do “Right-to-Work” states when they don’t want to off fair wages and benefits? One might assume so.

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NEVADA ASSEMBLY DEMOCRATS UNVEIL FIVE POINT PLAN FOR JOB CREATION

LAS VEGAS, NV—Nevada Assembly Democrats today unveiled a package of five proposals to help put Nevadans back to work and attract new businesses to our state. The legislative proposals will be introduced in the next session of the Nevada Legislature, set to convene in February, 2013.

“While we have taken steps to reduce our unemployment rate, far too many Nevadans are unemployed or underemployed,” said Assembly Majority Leader Marcus Conklin. “The measures we are proposing today are real, tangible actions we can take to help create jobs now and for the future.”

Assembly Assistant Majority Leader Marilyn Kirkpatrick pointed out that while legislation passed last session has begun to result in more local jobs, more needs to be done.

“In 2011, for example, we passed ‘Nevada Jobs First’ legislation to give a bidder’s preference of 5% to businesses that hire locally and buy Nevada products. The result of that legislation has been the awarding of more contracts to Nevada companies.” Kirkpatrick said. “This is a program that has worked, and we are proposing to expand it to cover even more projects and create more jobs.”

The following plan was unveiled at a press conference at the World Market Center in Las Vegas today, with Assembly members William Horne, Dina Neal and Skip Daly, along with Conklin and Kirkpatrick, making presentations about the proposals, The press conference was attended by State Assembly and State Senate Democrats and representatives of labor and the business community.

INVESTING IN NEVADA

A Five-Point Plan for Job Creation and Economic Recovery
Presented by Nevada Assembly Democrats

1. Expand “Nevada Jobs First” legislation passed in 2011 to include all public works projects.

2. Provide opportunities for businesses to make an investment in higher education to support coursework and retraining programs that provide the workforce they need. This public/private partnership will help ensure that our colleges and universities are preparing our students for today’s job market.

3. Establish “economic gardening” to provide new and expanding small and medium sized businesses the marketing data they need; establish an online business resource center to help businesses in need of workers connect with Nevadans seeking employment, with information about qualifications and training needed for the jobs.

4. Utilize empty state buildings or land for economic development, particularly for manufacturing and distribution of goods. This expands our efforts to make Nevada a logistics hub for the Western United States.

5. Streamline application and permitting processes to help businesses start up and begin operating more quickly. This would be based on successful measures in Florida and Utah.