The clouds of the financial crisis could contain a rich silver lining for Nevada, and John H.O. La Gatta wants the private and public sectors to move quickly to grab the opportunity.
Here, says the Reno investor, is the opportunity: Law firms, accountants, and numerous other professionals in Nevada can be making bids to handle parts of the work involved in the federal Trouble Asset Relief Program the $700 billion bailout of financial institutions that's increasingly known simply by its acronym, TARP.
At the same time, state and local governments in Nevada can be making a concerted effort to convince major financial institutions to locate part of their operations the parts that will handle the workout of troubled assets in Nevada.
As La Gatta has pitched the idea to professional firms, he has noted that Nevada's low-cost business environment and the rich experience of its legal and financial professionals in corporate work are likely to be attractive to companies handling TARP work.
TARP-related work, he says, would generate high-paying jobs, help fill vacant office space throughout the state and strengthen Nevada's position as a center for white-collar, intellectual-capital work.
"Nevada should be a capital of intangibles," he says. "New York City expects to lose 150,000 financial services jobs; if Nevada vigorously pursues TARP business, a by-product of this effort would be encouraging the financial services industry and related professionals generally about Nevada."
Companies ranging from title insurers to printers to actuaries stand to benefit if TARP work flows to Nevada, La Gatta says, and he describes the response to his calls as "very positive."
On the other hand, he says it's been difficult to engage the attention of the Nevada's Congressional delegation and state-level elected officials while they've been busy campaigning.
He's hopeful elected officials will begin to move urgently once the election season ends because the U.S. Treasury is beginning to award contracts for the TARP work.
The Bank of New York Mellon was selected in mid-October as custodian for the bailout fund, and PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young have been hired to provide accounting services.
