Will Nevada diversify its boom-and-bust economy?

Nevada leaders have talked for years about the need to diversify their state’s tourism-centric economy. But the hard lessons of the recession, which has left Nevada with the highest unemployment and foreclosure rates in the nation, are giving the discussion new urgency.

In this year’s legislative session, lawmakers from both parties approved a broad overhaul of Nevada’s economic development efforts, streamlining and consolidating them within the office of Governor Brian Sandoval, and providing new funding.

Now, state leaders are considering a host of recommendations contained in a five-month, 176-page study http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2011/1114_nevada_economy.aspx of Nevada’s economic development strategy released this month by a group of prominent think tanks, led by the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. The study urges Nevada to consider a three-pronged, multi-year approach to make its economy less vulnerable to the kind of dramatic ups and downs that have put 13.4 percent of the state’s workforce out of a job and caused state revenues to plunge.

By John Gramlich, Stateline Staff Writer

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