By Vernon Robison
Moapa Valley Progress
Nevadans should move toward being more self-reliant and less dependent on government, Assemblyman Cresent Hardy (R) told members of the Moapa Valley Chamber of Commerce last week.
Hardy was the guest speaker at the Chamber’s monthly membership luncheon held in the conference room of the Northshore Inn in Overton on Thursday, July 21.
At the meeting, Hardy gave a brief report of the recently concluded Legislative session and fielded questions from Chamber members.
“We’ve developed a real sense of entitlement in this country and that has caused us some trouble especially in this economy,” Hardy said. “If we want to be self-reliant we need to not be so dependent on government programs and entitlements. Instead spend a few of our own dollars to look out for ourselves.”
Hardy recalled that he had taken care of his own parents in their old age and he expected that his children would take care of him when the time came as well. “I have no plans to become a draw on the government,” Hardy said. “I think we need to return to those practices in this country.”
He cited the state’s higher education system as another example. “While we were in session we had busloads of students come to Carson City,” he said. “They talked about how we were destroying their lives, robbing them of opportunities. They felt entitled to these things.”
Hardy said that he believed that K-12 education should be publicly funded. But beyond that students should be responsible pay their own way, he said.
“In my experience, when you earn your own way, you work harder and take less for granted,” Hardy said.
Hardy also cited the rise in public sector employment and the desparity in compensation between public and private sector as another example of reliance on government.
“I have run a successful small business in construction for many years,” Hardy said. “We have done quite well at times. But I’ll tell you, I’ve never paid myself as much as $100,000 in salary. Yet I see firefighters, police and other government staff positions making much more than that. It used to be people worked in the public sector for the steady salary and the benefits. But now many of them are getting the highest salaries out there; and the best benefits too. It’s hard to justify that when there is such a disparity in what the private sector is earning.”
Hardy said that he had supported the passage of legislation that would bring reform to retirement benefits for public employees in the future. “The long-term savings will be in the billions,” he said.
Hardy said that the Legislature’s accomplishment to reduce the state budget by half a billion dollars was good but not enough.
“I voted against the Governor’s budget because I thought that it could have gone a lot further,” he said. “I strongly believe that less government is better government.”
Hardy talked about the handful of bills that he had introduced.
Most important among these to him was a bill dealing with prevailing wages, he said.
“Getting the prevailing wage issue under control in this state was my hill to die for,” he said.
He explained that, under prevailing wage in Nevada, construction workers make from $40-$70 per hour. “A large percentage of that goes to fund the unions and their political action funds,” he said.
Meanwhile those few states that have remained non-union are recovering from the recession the quickest, Hardy said. That is because there is less waste and more of the money gets to the pocket of the employees, he said.
The prevailing wage bill never came to a vote.
Another bill sponsored by Hardy would have worked to prevent Medicaid fraud in the state.
“As a business owner I have seen things that are pretty shocking,” Hardy said. “People get pretty innovative in manipulating the system. It is estimated that this costs the state millions of dollars.”
Hardy’s bill would have brought a study on all state departments to find ideas to get business-people more involved to stop or prevent Medicaid fraud.
“The bill was hailed as the first pro-active bill that had come along in a long time,” Hardy said.
This bill also never came to a vote.
Directly affecting Moapa Valley was one of Hardy’s bills that had would have allowed for small rural town advisory boards in high population counties to be elected rather than appointed by the county commission.
“This bill wouldn’t have cost a thing, except maybe candidates having to buy campaign signs for their elections,” Hardy said.
The bill received unanimous approval in the Assembly but then got bogged down in the Senate.
“I won’t name any names or initials, but a certain County Commissioner was able to influence things on the Senate side and bring the bill to a halt,” Hardy said.
While none of these bills got through, Hardy said there were some accomplishments that he was proud of at the session. He said that he had helped to keep funding for mental health services in th rural areas.
“We also kept the Lost City Museum running for another two years,” he said to general applause in the room.
Hardy was asked about the possibility of extending the hours of the museum to be open more days each week. Currently the museum is closed Mondays through Wednesdays.
Hardy brought this back to the self-reliance issue. “Right now the operation of the museum is an obligation of the State,” Hardy said. “But I believe that if it were turned more over to the private sector, and run more as a business, it could have better marketing, it would draw more visitors to the museum and the community; it would just be better all around.”
Hardy ended on a positive note. “I know that it is hard in these tough economic times to have a good attitude,” he said. “But if it is going to turn around, we have to pick ourselves up and find a positive in everything out there. I’m convinced that these challenges will bring us back to where we need to be.”
