Nevada should spend less time trying to attract flashy high-tech companies and more time educating its residents for the future, Gov. Kenny Guinn said Thursday while addressing the Kiwanis at the Carson Nugget.
"We have to stop saying we're gonna get high technology by the bushels coming here," Guinn said. "If you don't have an educated work force, you can't get high technology. If we educate people, we'll be able to bring high technology."
Guinn called education one of his "super priorities," noting both his Millennium Scholarships and the need to encourage youths with lower grade point averages to get post-secondary education or training.
Better education leads to better jobs, higher salaries and the payment of more taxes, Guinn said.
Guinn nonetheless stressed that coveted high-tech jobs must pay a living wage or people won't be able to support themselves and their families and will pass back to the state the costs of using social services.
"I told the economic development people to stop running around and bragging you brought some company here that pays only an average of $10 per hour."
Guinn also called for changes to the state budget.
He said better long-range planning must happen or the budget will be "over a billion dollars short on the eighth or ninth year."
He said the executive branch must be allowed to allocate budgeted state resources where public need is greatest, citing as an example staffing shortages at the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety.
Guinn said Nevada laws often constrain the governor's office through micromanagement.
"Flexibility must be brought to the executive branch of government in this state," Guinn said. "We will get that kind of flexibility or you're going to see feathers flying out of Carson City for the next 15 years."
Besides the specific issue of DMV staffing, Guinn said something must be done in general "about the turnover, training and benefit packages for state employees." He said the state cannot afford to lose expert employees because they are dissatisfied.
Guinn also spoke briefly about crime, privatization of state agencies and his opposition to all initiative petitions, which he said special interest groups use for their own ends.
Guinn said while state government cannot be run exactly like a business, business principles can be used to run state government.
Carson City Mayor Ray Masayko agreed, noting that "government didn't used to think like that. It has to now."
