The Pahrump Valley Times - Titus Hopes Voters Embrace Her 'Tell It Like It Is' Style In Chase For Governor's Mansion

August 17, 2005

ELECTION 2006: Pahrump on political radar

Titus Hopes Voters Embrace Her 'Tell It Like It Is' Style In Chase For Governor's Mansion

By PHILLIP GOMEZ

Gubernatorial candidate State Sen. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas was as one of three judges in the recent Miss Pahrump Pageant. Titus and Dean Heller say Pahrump and Nye County will play a major role in the 2006 elections.

Advertisement
Nevada Sen. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, was raised in the small farming town of Tifton, Ga., first coming to Nevada in 1977 to take a teaching post at UNLV.

There she taught political science until deciding to get into the political arena herself by running for the Legislature. Elected in 1988 as a Democrat, Titus became minority leader four years later. Now she is running for governor because of her love of Nevada - its people, its politics and its scenery, "from the top of Mt. Charleston to the Truckee River," she says.

"There's no place like it on the planet," said Titus. As for the state's often-raucous political scene, "Although we've come a long way in a short time, I believe we can do better. I'm known as a straight talker; I tell it like it is; I don't beat around the bush.

"And I'm also known as a fighter," said Titus, bringing up her struggle to save the Red Rock Canyon area of Las Vegas from development. She also introduced successful legislation this last session for a property tax freeze for homeowners.

"Nevada needs a fighter," Titus says.

Among the issues Titus has staked out as important:

Seniors and veterans

"We have the fastest growing senior population in the country," she said. "In my first session in the Legislature, I introduced legislation on the committee on aging. I was appointed to serve on the committee for a number of years."

Health care, transportation and affordable housing are issues important to Titus, she says, "and they tie into the property tax issue. Seniors on fixed incomes see their taxes go up and can't afford to pay the skyrocketing tax rates."

The Nevada Taxpayers Association and representatives of several senior groups supported Titus' bill.

"Many people moving here are retired seniors. Nevada also has the fastest growing veteran population. There are a lot of vets in Pahrump. That's why I pushed for the Nye County Veterans' Bill for Pahrump. Laura Billman and Patty Chipman - Pahrump citizens who work as lobbyists in Carson City for Nye County - lobbied for the bill to provide outreach for veterans.

"The forgotten veterans are the women veterans," says Titus. "There were 30,000 women vets in Nevada and yet no outreach was available for basic and special women's needs until my bill was passed.

"Women vets are much less likely than male vets to access services like the GI Bill and health care. My bill sets up a veteran's coordinator for women."

Recreation

"I hope the people of Pahrump will give me some input on making Mt. Charleston more user-friendly and accessible. I will be chairing an interim- session legislative workshop in Pahrump in the late fall to take testimony on developing recreational opportunities for the west side of the mountain. Most of that is owned by the federal government, but the state has a responsibility to be involved. It's one of the state's natural treasures.

"The state is growing so fast, we need to be able to provide for recreational opportunities and to preserve our natural treasures, like Walker Lake, Mt. Charleston and Blue Diamond Loop, as well as the state parks."

Rural Nevada

Titus disclaims that rural Nevada was slighted in the last legislative session. She introduced a bill just for rural Nevada communities. It provided grant funding of $3 million for industrial parks and tax incentives for businesses to relocate to the state, she says.

"That was a subsidy to help with economic development with no matching funding required," she says. Elko's rail exchange and a power plant in Ely were examples of "the kind of things that can be funded," she says. Both public agencies and private entities are eligible for funding.

"If Pahrump or Nye County has a project, they can apply for funds to the director of economic development, who will be drawing up his list."

Green energy

"Within my first 100 days I would call a renewable energy summit," Titus says. "We have a lot of wind, solar and geothermal potential for electric energy. I would invite utility companies, rural economic development experts, manufacturers of green technology and environmentalists.

"I believe that if we could figure out a way to develop alternative energy sources, there would be several benefits: you could do economic development in rural Nevada. It would create jobs and taxable industry.

"Additionally, it would bring the utility bills down and improve the environment. It would also be good for national defense because the United States would then be less dependent on foreign, hostile sources of oil."

Education

"I feel we should ensure that the money gets to the schools, not to the administrators. That would mean better technology in the schools and schoolbooks for every child to take home.

"This last session I suggested all-day kindergarten, because studies show that kids do better when they start their education in kindergarten."

Titus mentioned the state's Millennium Scholarships as something she supports because "it allows more Nevada kids to go to college."

The campaign

"Something the people of rural Nevada should know is that I started my campaign in Minden, (a small town south of Carson City).

"I'm going to go to every corner of the state. It's going to be a statewide campaign. You'll see us in Pahrump again.

"The theme of my campaign is, 'Government should do what it does best' - educate our children, lock up the bad guys, provide for the common good and then get out of the way. We don't need intrusive government in our lives, or in our personal decisions."

http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2005/08/17/news/titus.html