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Bonanza Photo - Emma Garrard Nevada Senator Bob Beers visited Incline Village Friday to talk about issues that affect Incline Village.
Gubernatorial candidate Sen. Bob Beers (R- Dist. 6) on an RV campaign tour stopped by Incline Village Friday afternoon and sat down with the Bonanza editorial staff. Here are his answers to some of the questions on issues we felt will most impact local voters in November.
Bonanza: This week you spoke out against Jim Gibbons' Education First plan (which would require legislation to fund education before anything else) - any particular reason why?
Beers: My thoughts are it won't make any difference, but it feels good, so I'll vote for it.
Bonanza: That's a little backhanded; don't you think it'll do some good?
Beers: Do you know what it will do?
Bonanza: Not really.
Beers: Then I rest my case.
Bonanza: Locally, Incline schools are constantly working to get extra funding to supplement what they receive from the county. The school's demographic is also changing as middle-class families move to Carson City or Reno.
Bonanza: This week you spoke out against Jim Gibbons' Education First plan (which would require legislation to fund education before anything else) - any particular reason why?
Beers: My thoughts are it won't make any difference, but it feels good, so I'll vote for it.
Bonanza: That's a little backhanded; don't you think it'll do some good?
Beers: Do you know what it will do?
Bonanza: Not really.
Beers: Then I rest my case.
Bonanza: Locally, Incline schools are constantly working to get extra funding to supplement what they receive from the county. The school's demographic is also changing as middle-class families move to Carson City or Reno.
More than half of this year's kindergarten class is Hispanic. Any thoughts on the state of education here?
Beers: Generally the state doesn't and probably shouldn't be in involved in the allocation of the county's budgets, especially for education. But, my best interests are in full-time English learning.
Bonanza: So cut out bilingual education?
Beers: It does a disservice to kids, it's ill-advised.
Bonanza: I'm sure some parents or educators may disagree.
Beers: I don't think you'd find many parents who'd disagree.
Bonanza: Any other thoughts on education?
Beers: As a general point of philosophy I would shift resources out of welfare and into education. (Education) gives a human being tools to be more than where they came from - welfare preserves the status quo.
Beers: Generally the state doesn't and probably shouldn't be in involved in the allocation of the county's budgets, especially for education. But, my best interests are in full-time English learning.
Bonanza: So cut out bilingual education?
Beers: It does a disservice to kids, it's ill-advised.
Bonanza: I'm sure some parents or educators may disagree.
Beers: I don't think you'd find many parents who'd disagree.
Bonanza: Any other thoughts on education?
Beers: As a general point of philosophy I would shift resources out of welfare and into education. (Education) gives a human being tools to be more than where they came from - welfare preserves the status quo.
Bonanza: To shift gears, there's a movement in Incline, a tax revolt group, which, if the state supreme court upholds a district court decision, could roll back property taxes to 2002. This is important two-fold: One, because it calls into question the tax valuation system which the legislature will take note; and two, because the tax revolters maintain that some property owners who are now living on a fixed income simply cannot afford property taxes and, ostensibly to stay in their own homes.
Beers: First with the (current, three-percent property tax cap) anything the current legislature does, a future legislature can undo. The story of a person who's been in a home for a long time and cannot stay because they live on a fixed income is compelling.
Bonanza: And what of Assemblywoman Sharron Angle's Prop 13-like legislation?
Beers: Prop 13 (in California) fixed a problem for some individuals but did nothing to improve the problem in California which eventually faced a downturn in quality of life. In the 200 census it turns out that more of the population moved out of California for the first time since before the Gold Rush.
My hope is to prevent that kind of erosion of quality of life with my (Tax and Spending Control) TASC initiative for Nevada.
Bonanza: Explain TASC.
Beers: In the long haul, I don't want to sell my stuff and move to Idaho or somewhere else. To that end we need to (take) government out of the hands of special interests and put it in the hands of voters.
TASC basically puts a check on unbridled expansion of government like we saw in 2003. It assumes that government is a big enough percentage of our world today.
Beers: First with the (current, three-percent property tax cap) anything the current legislature does, a future legislature can undo. The story of a person who's been in a home for a long time and cannot stay because they live on a fixed income is compelling.
Bonanza: And what of Assemblywoman Sharron Angle's Prop 13-like legislation?
Beers: Prop 13 (in California) fixed a problem for some individuals but did nothing to improve the problem in California which eventually faced a downturn in quality of life. In the 200 census it turns out that more of the population moved out of California for the first time since before the Gold Rush.
My hope is to prevent that kind of erosion of quality of life with my (Tax and Spending Control) TASC initiative for Nevada.
Bonanza: Explain TASC.
Beers: In the long haul, I don't want to sell my stuff and move to Idaho or somewhere else. To that end we need to (take) government out of the hands of special interests and put it in the hands of voters.
TASC basically puts a check on unbridled expansion of government like we saw in 2003. It assumes that government is a big enough percentage of our world today.
Bonanza: So it's a reaction to the expansion of state government in 2003?
Beers: Yes, yes and yes. The state government's size (for that year) will be talked about for 100 years. It would take two elections to inact my policy.
Bonanza: But what would you do with the money not spent on government?
Beers: We don't know if we'd have extra money. But any would be used on emergency resources so we can cope with the unexpected. And then we'd move into a refund phase.
Bonanza: Incline is, by-in-large, a military town. We have one of the most successful JROTC programs in the nation, and many residents are retired military. What do you think about the conflict in Iraq and our current President's foreign policy?
Beers: I'm not educated enough on our foreign policy to make any statement and I'm not running for President.
But I'm keenly interested in anything our state government can do to express support for those who have volunteered to defend our freedom.
Bonanza: Anything else you want Incline residents to know?
Beers: Nevada is at a crossroads, we are at risk of slipping into a pattern of California socialism. My main goal is to maintain and improve our quality of life in this state.
Beers: Yes, yes and yes. The state government's size (for that year) will be talked about for 100 years. It would take two elections to inact my policy.
Bonanza: But what would you do with the money not spent on government?
Beers: We don't know if we'd have extra money. But any would be used on emergency resources so we can cope with the unexpected. And then we'd move into a refund phase.
Bonanza: Incline is, by-in-large, a military town. We have one of the most successful JROTC programs in the nation, and many residents are retired military. What do you think about the conflict in Iraq and our current President's foreign policy?
Beers: I'm not educated enough on our foreign policy to make any statement and I'm not running for President.
But I'm keenly interested in anything our state government can do to express support for those who have volunteered to defend our freedom.
Bonanza: Anything else you want Incline residents to know?
Beers: Nevada is at a crossroads, we are at risk of slipping into a pattern of California socialism. My main goal is to maintain and improve our quality of life in this state.
