Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman recently called Governor Sisolak’s sweeping closure of “nonessential” businesses “total insanity.” Mayor Goodman once again pushed the governor to open the state to save the economy and ease the economic stress of ordinary citizens.
“This state shutdown has become total insanity in my opinion. There is no data to back up why we shut down from the start and no plan in place how to move past this shutdown or how we can even come out of it,” Goodman said.
While national and local health professionals continue to push social distancing and self-quarantine to combat the outbreak of COVID-19, the mayor pointed out that businesses need to be reopened throughout the Battle Born State.
She said reopening the state for business would stop the negative effect the shutdown has had on small businesses and families, and most importantly, the Las Vegas tourism and casino industry. “Being closed is killing us already,” said the mayor.
To make matters worse, the Nevada unemployment office was overwhelmed with 92,298 unemployment claims the week ending March 21 alone. Despite Governor Sisolak hiring a call center to deal with the unprecedented number of claims, many Nevadans still have not been able to collect unemployment. The dire situation has sparked protests along the Las Vegas Strip, in Reno and Carson City.
“The longer we wait to end this shutdown, the more impossible it will be to recover and return Nevada to the home we all know and love,” said Mayor Goodman at the beginning of a recent City Council meeting.
Governor Sisolak’s office has not responded to the mayor’s remarks, and has not indicated he has any plan in place to end the shutdown.
Mayor Goodman committed to economic and social well-being
Mayor Goodman urgently appealed to the governor last month to shorten what was then a 30-day shutdown to around a week. However, Governor Sisolak extended the closures through the end of April. Furthermore, he has hinted he may extend the shutdown beyond that.
Citing experts she has consulted with, Goodman said the novel coronavirus will just “be part of what we have to work through going forward” not unlike a flu outbreak. Mayor Goodman strongly feels that the time has come for Nevada to return to normal life.
“We can’t just keep our heads in the sand thinking this is going to go away,” she said. “We’re adults, we have brains, we know how to wash our hands and to take all the precautions we need to not to spread this disease.”
While the mayor offered her condolences to those who have lost loved ones to the coronavirus, she also pointed out that those who have died from COVID-19 are only a small fraction of the state’s population.
“Let me tell you, with a population of 3.2 million living in the state of Nevada, those who have died represent less one half of one percent of our population. This has caused us to shut down our entire state and everything that makes Nevada special,” she said.
By April 15, Nevada Health Response reported 131 deaths attributed to COVID-19 statewide, which means that the number of deaths equaled a much lower percentage of Nevada’s overall population than even the mayor described.
Economic hardship
A report from Oxford Economics, a UK global-forecasting, and quantitative-analysis firm, emphasizes that ranks Nevada as the second-most economically vulnerable state to the COVID-19 lockdowns. Maine ranked number one for economic vulnerability. The issue at hand is that Nevada receives more than four times as much of its gross domestic income from tourism, compared to the United States as a whole. The state also relies heavily on retail activity and small businesses. Finally, Nevada has a higher proportion of elderly residents. The fact is, 49% of workers in southern Nevada, the most heavily populated region of the state, work in the leisure and hospitality industries that are most at risk for job loss. Las Vegas’ share of at-risk job loss is the highest among the 50 metropolitan areas that were compared.
According to City Manager Scott Adams, Las Vegas is facing a deficit of around $150 million over the next 18 months. Furthermore, the city continues to prioritize measures to reduce the economic hardships on both residents and businesses, while planning for economic upheaval.
A proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year balances, said Adams, especially in cooperation with the city’s collective bargaining units. Adams met with those leaders two weeks ago, indicating he would suspend those contracts later the same day.
Adams indicated that this move was not for economic reasons, but rather for flexibility in the workplace, mirroring the reasoning of Clark County when it suspended its union contracts.
The city of Las Vegas expects to receive funding from the congressional stimulus bill very soon; according to early projections, Las Vegas could receive as much as $160 million. However, Adams said it wasn’t clear when that money would arrive. “If there is ever a time when the old saying, ‘show me the money,’ applies, it’s now,” quipped Adams.
Adams also said the city has applied for grants to acquire more personal protective equipment for the city’s first responders. Likewise, the city will begin to focus on both its strategy for economic and social recovery, closely examining the residual effects of massive unemployment.
