Tax hike dominates debate

Thursday, Aug. 26, 2004 | 11:04 a.m.

State Sen. Ray Rawson and Assemblyman Bob Beers, who is challenging Rawson for the Senate job in one of the most hotly contested primaries of the year, covered some familiar territory during a debate Wednesday on "Face to Face With Jon Ralston."

The $833 million tax increase passed by the 2003 Legislature, which Rawson supported and Beers opposed, dominated the debate, which is scheduled to air today on Las Vegas ONE, Cox cable Channel 19 at 4:30, 5:30 and 8 p.m.

Beers accused Rawson of betraying voters by backing the tax package. Rawson countered that Beers acted irresponsibly by refusing to even work with other lawmakers toward a compromise that would limit taxes while still funding education and other public needs.

At the heart of the their feud was the larger question of how much state government should grow in response to the exploding population and what the state coffers should pay for.

Beers said he fears Nevada government is growing too much and said he would rather the state had cut spending last year rather than raise taxes to cover an expansion in state government. He said Nevadans were never asked whether they wanted an expansion.

"We are on a California track to big spending," Beers said on the show.

Beers said growth would pay for growth in the state, that all of the people moving in and paying taxes would cover the increase in government services needed to accommodate them.

Rawson, however, said that does not square with reality.

"We're behind the curve in growth being able to pay for growth," Rawson said. "It doesn't."

The senator of 18 years said that he didn't want taxes any more than Beers, but that he saw a greater need to fund the government programs those taxes paid for.

"A lot of people that Bob Beers appeals to don't want to raise anything," Rawson said. "They don't want to build any schools, they don't want to improve any highways, they don't want any parks, they don't want to put any money into our community. So that's easy to stand back and throw those grenades in."

Rawson also said he helped to cut $183 million out of the proposed increases and would have been able to cut more if Beers and his coalition of 15 other Assembly members would have cooperated.

"We had an opportunity to cut this budget another $130 million, and we took that proposal to this group of assemblymen and they simply said, 'No, we've got an election coming up and we are not going to vote for any new taxes,"' Rawson said.

"That's immature. That's irresponsible," Rawson continued.

In addition to taxes, the two also debated one of the budget items Beers said increased government spending -- the University of Nevada, Las Vegas School of Dental Medicine.

Rawson, a dentist who used to teach at the school and who has been accused of having a conflict of interest in supporting its development, defended the dental school as forwarding UNLV's goal of becoming a renowned research university.

He also reiterated his argument that the dental school will eventually cost the state nothing -- that its tuition, Medicare contract, grant money and clinical revenue would cover the costs of running the graduate courses.

Beers questioned the claim, but added he thought UNLV needed to become really good in a few areas of research instead of continually branching out with "program after program."

"It's now approaching a mile wide and an inch deep, and top-notch research institutions are almost invariably a mile deep and a few inches wide," Beers said.