Nevada’s Recovery Act director, Charles Harvey [pictured] has an especially difficult set of challenges facing him. As we noted recently, Nevada has received fewer dollars per capita than all but a handful of other states, despite having the highest unemployment rate in the country as well as one of the highest foreclosure rates. In short Harvey has a lot more work to do than his counterparts in other states and has received somewhat less money to get it done.

“That is the reality that we live with everyday as we try to tell the story of how we’re using the money," Harvey says. “It makes it an uphill battle.”

Harvey doesn’t seem inclined to whine about his state’s fate though he does appear to be frustrated by the wide-spread focus on unemployment rates that makes it seem as if the stimulus hasn’t done much for Nevada. “I think it will forever be tied up as a jobs bill when we know that the original goals were more than just jobs," he says, echoing a point that Pennsylvania’s Eileen McNulty also made to us recently. “We want to focus on all the goals of the bill as it was originally designed, not merely on the creation or retention of jobs."

Harvey points out that given Nevada’s situation, its citizens should appreciate the fact that Recovery Act spending also supports unemployment benefits, as well as enhanced Medicaid payments to states. A completely thorough measure of the impact of the stimulus on Nevada would surely take both of these into account.

“It is easy to look back in hindsight and say it should have been designed differently,” Harvey adds. “I don’t want to go back and judge. What I will say, in going forward is that I think there needs to be some emphasis placed on the states in greatest need."

1 comments

This guy should be governor!

09/24/2010 - 20:08

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