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OBITUARIES
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NO OBITUARY NOTICES
WERE PUBLISHED IN
THIS WEEK'S EDITION
OBITUARIES FROM THE
JULY 15TH ISSUE
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02-04-2010 State Senator Lee Visits Lincoln County
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State Senator Lee Visits Lincoln County
By Dave Maxwell
 Making a planned visit to Lincoln County, Senator John Lee, D-Las Vegas, spoke at the regular meeting of the Lincoln County Commissioners February 1. Lee told Commissioners, as Chairman of the Government Affairs Committee, he oversees all that the County Commissioners do, throughout the state. "It's my responsibility to come out and see you where you work." Lee opened by saying that at the state legislature, "We care about you. I know there's times you guys may think there's people from the legislature who don't know you're here, and we do know you're here."
Two-thirds of the state legislature does come from the Las Vegas area now, Lee noted, including himself, who represents North Las Vegas and Nellis Air Base, "But we don't get together and say how can we cheat the rurals. We don't do that. We don't have that attitude."
Lee admitted, that although some people in Las Vegas don't know much of the world past Indian Springs, and think Ely and Elko are suburbs of Reno, "We do care. You're on our minds. We are not the big guys from the south who are just going to destroy your lifestyle up here. You are Nevadans, and we want to protect these homes and these values up here. That's protecting ourselves also."
The reason he thought people in rural Nevada may feel neglected by the legislators, is that "We're not hearing from you. We're not seeing you. You're not telling us what your needs are. Send some body up to legislature and let us know what your desires are. You have a voice. Reach out and talk to us, we're not unapproachable. We need to know how you think something will affect you."
Lee said his function, as a member of the legislature is to, "Educate, Medicate, and Incarcerate. Probably 80 percent of everything I do has to do with those three areas."
"We want to educate our children in the state of Nevada equally. Give everyone an opportunity to have that education."
"We medicate because there are people in the state that just need our help, we are our brother's keeper."
"And the last thing we do is incarcerate, and we spend a lot of money on that."
He said the legislature does not even try to "sanction geographic differences towards anywhere. We give assistance wherever we can, and it's a big state."
Two issues for rural areas Lee mentioned will be discussed at future legislative meetings have to do with home rule and reapportionment. Lee said the Governor's special legislative session February 8 will deal with very specific issues, and they won't be able to digress, too much, if at all, from the agenda.
Regarding economic growth in the state, Lee mentioned expert studies are forecasting Nevada will not see much up turn in the economy until 2012. He said 120,000 jobs have been lost in the state since December 2007, including 12,500 in November and December, 2009. Unemployment in Lincoln County is 9.3, according to County figures. Lee said, "We are going to pull out of this, although slowly."
He also said he did not believe the state government has the right to come in and take money from the counties, which is what has been happening since 2008, in order for state government to stay afloat. One idea that might be considered, he thought, was to possibly raise the property tax cap, or a number of other "little things we can do to take advantage of. We're not going to come and just randomly wipe out Lincoln County or White Pine County. If we affect this county so negatively, we in Clark County are just going to have to pick it up again. We have to work with you, to keep you guys alive, and that helps us not have to pay your bill."
Lee left an open invitation to anyone interested to come to a meeting of the legislature, when in session. He said with advance notice, a person may even be allowed to sit with his/her senator on the floor during a meeting. "We welcome you to come up."
Commissioner Tommy Rowe told Lee two things that would devastate Lincoln County would be closing the Pioche Honor Camp and the Caliente Youth Center. "We need you to fight for these two things." Lee did not respond directly to Rowe's comment.
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