Casino Icon Steve Wynn recently spoke in an interview concerning the lifeline of Las Vegas based on the current stimulus package presented by President Barack Obama. Although the new stimulus package is reported to bring $1.5 billion (of a $787 billion package) to the state of Nevada, Wynn doesn’t believe that this will solve the state’s problem.

“I think a great percentage of the stimulus has been wasted. It didn’t do what it was supposed to do,” Wynn said. “We did not create jobs. Nothing I’ve seen has been a job creator.”

In an interview with the Las Vegas Sun columnist, Jon Ralston, Wynn revealed that a change in tax structure could be one of the best ways to create incentives for companies to create new jobs.

“If you wanted to create jobs in every sector of this economy and every community … you could do it in less than a month without hiring any federal employees,” Wynn said. “You’d simply say if a company can prove that it has increased its regular work force, with health insurance … we will give you a tax credit to support the payroll of that new hire.”

In an effort to practice what you preach, Wynn created over 4000 new jobs last year. These jobs did not come without a price, however. The work weeks were reduced, salaries for full time employees were also reduced, 2009 bonus were cut, as was the matching of a 401K program.

Wynn said that it would be a bad decision for Gov. Jim Gibbons to go after the gaming industry for more taxes. “I know that if they go after the gaming industry we will have massive, unbelievable cutbacks. The unemployment rate will go to 15 percent,” Wynn said.

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