Senate District 15 in Washoe County is hundreds of miles from Las Vegas, but the election results could determine which party controls state politics.
And that has to do with veto power. In 2023, Republican Governor Joe Lombardo vetoed 75 bills from the state's Democratically controlled legislature. It was a veto record.
For Democrats to overrule those vetoes, they need super majorities in both the Assembly and Senate. They have and are expected to keep that supermajority in the Assembly, but they are one vote shy in the Senate.
Currently, Republican Senator Heidi Seevers Gansert holds the office but announced last year that she would not seek reelection.
NAME: Mike Ginsburg
PARTY: Republican
OCCUPATION: Distribution Design Department Manager at NV Energy
BOGER: What do you see as the top issues affecting the state?
GINSBURG: Well, education is always going to be one of them. Because my mother was an educator for 35 years, she taught at Reno High School. My parents got divorced when I was way back in the 70s. But she raised us for a little while on a teacher's salary. And we all know that teachers give back to their classrooms, I would say that 99% of all teachers have put money back into their classrooms, which they shouldn't have to do, I think teachers are underpaid. I think that we need to improve on that pay to attract more teachers to attract the right teachers. Because everybody has to be accountable when it comes to education, whether it's the teachers, the administrators, the parents, the students, because this is ultimately going to lead into our workforce, where we're growing now or future leaders future workforce, whether they're doctors, lawyers, they want to work in the trades, whatever they want to do, we are training our kids. So I think education is extremely important paying teachers correctly. You know, making sure that's a lucrative field, that they can actually go there and want to be there, you know, making sure the teachers don't have to get a second job. Because a lot of teachers are doing it for the love of the game. You know, I think we have, I would say way too many administrators. And that's one thing I had my my three daughters all went to the Washoe County School District. So I've seen it firsthand. You know, I've experienced what the school district puts out and what it does. And I think, you know, it's always been a problem teachers have always been a problem getting teachers, the right teachers.
BOGER: In that vein, Governor Lombardo has previously called for an increase in funding for opportunity scholarships. That's the state's current voucher system that allows families making less than about $84,000 a year to send their kids to private schools. Would you support expanding a program like that?
GINSBURG: Absolutely. I think I absolutely believe that a child's education should not be determined by their zip code. So if a child, if the education is found elsewhere, we should be able to support that child going where they want to go. With that said, though, why are they wanting to go to different schools? You know, why is the school underperforming, you got to make sure that your education systems up to speed making sure that those underperforming schools are performing, but also giving those families the opportunity to go where they want to go?
BOGER: One of the big issues that's facing Northern Nevada specifically, but it's the national issue is is affordable housing. So I'm curious, you know, what is the state's role and Nevada's affordable housing crisis?
GINSBURG: Well, I think that part of the state's role is going to be if we can get some of these federal lands released. Developers, a lot of people will blame developers for the cost of housing, but really, it's the cost to build the house, it's the land that they have to buy, it's the material that they have to buy, everything has kind of gone up in price, which is making a lot of people are not able to afford homes. So I think if we can get some of the land released, that comes at a lower price, then we can actually get housing prices down.
BOGER: What a homelessness? Does the state have a role in addressing homelessness?
GINSBURG: It is a problem. I think that part of it has to do with getting people help, you know, the homeless, or the unhoused. You need to make sure that they're getting the help that they need to get help. Some of them don't want help some of them like the lifestyle, then you have to understand that those people are going to do what they want to do. But the people that absolutely need help, whether it's mental health, I think the state can help on that. I think that those outreach programs, making sure that if you want help, you can get help. And I think that does come from the state
BOGER: last year, given an embargo how the special session to provide public funding for a new A's stadium in the Las Vegas Strip. Would you have supported a deal like that?
GINSBURG: Really depends what it does. What it does is it helps drive revenue, it helps drive, you know, I'm gonna step back a little bit because we've been here. family's been here forever. I grew up here, but Nevada was always around gaming, it was always gaming and what you're starting to see as this diverse, and that's really a we're gonna survive as a state by having a diverse economy, whether it's industrial, you know, you're seeing a lot of data centers and a lot of warehousing and a lot of other stuff. But part of what it is is tourism. You want to bring the tourists in and I think that these stadiums help but if it at the cost of education or something else, I think a lot of times, you know, we're giving I don't want to give away everything to bring something in, whether it's a raider stadium or they're beautiful, beautiful architecture, beautiful buildings, you know, but if it's at the cost of the community, then I would probably vote no, but if it was to a benefit, where it's going to bring in revenue, it's going to bring in jobs, it's going to bring in Other things that can then get pushed in, you know, whether it's, you know, sales taxes, or it's tourism, whatever hotel stays, you know, we can start building up revenue that will then help, you know, education helps, you know, public, you know, the public all, you know, our citizens basically mean helps the citizens of the state and I'm all for it. But when we're just helping to pay, you know, billionaires that own a sports team, then I wouldn't probably vote no, because what is the benefit if it's just to benefit them? Not if it's to benefit the community? Absolutely.
BOGER: So if elected, you'll still probably be part of the minority party in the legislature as Republican. Are you willing to work across party lines?
GINSBURG: Absolutely. I mean, it's kind of what I already do, whether I'm talking Parks and Rec commission, neighborhood advisory boards, Collin ranch homeowners association, you're always working with everybody. You're not asking them, what party they're affiliated with. And what what I've noticed, I mean, this is my first time I'm, I always say, I'm not a politician, but people say you're a politician because you're running. So what I've noticed is there's this stigma. When you say you're a Republican, everybody assumes that you're far right, conservative. If you say you're a Democrat, everybody assumes you're far left liberal. But most of the people lie in the middle. Basically, I want to listen, I want to do the right thing. I want to do the right thing for the state. So I'm going to listen to any ideas, let's bring whatever ideas and if they work, they work.
NAME: Angie Taylor
PARTY: Democrat
OCCUPATION: Consultant/Assemblywoman Dist. 27
BOGER: You are the former president of the Washoe County School Board. What do you think it's going to take to really significantly move the needle? In terms of education here in the state?
Taylor: It's going to take a lot of things. I mean, this funding certainly is part of it, we still have some more work to do, I think part of it as well is looking at how we put the teachers in the best position they can be, the single most important thing that happens in the classroom, in a school system happens in the classroom, it's good instruction, that is more important than anything of instruction. So how do we help support teachers and put them in the best position, smaller class sizes are a big piece of it, right? That's a part of what it's going to take. It's amazing the difference that one or two or three children can make you think, oh, Ashley has one of the two or three more kids, but it really does add up and pile up for those for the other children in the classroom, that we need to keep the teachers that we have, and be able to attract more teachers as well. Right? So that's a part of it. So that's already so it's, it's, it's a yes, we need this. But that means we need this and that means we need this right. In some cases, that means from a capital standpoint, they may need more classrooms, we're in pretty good shape in the last show, because the boulders are generously past WC one. But that would that can be a challenge in some of the rules. When you start looking at ratios and class sizes, they may not have the classrooms. So we need because class sizes matter. And we have some of the large some of the largest class sizes in the country.
BOGER: Governor Lombardo has previously called for an increase in funding for opportunity scholarships, would you support expanding a program like that?
Taylor: Here's my concerns, I solicited me and said, here's my concern, I'm, I have a big concern with putting public dollars into private schools, when we haven't fully funded the public schools. That's my challenge. Right? Because the public schools have one source of income, that's their thing. We haven't fully funded them. So how do we take money away? Right, because it's money away. And that is money that could go there. Right money that could help with some of the ratios, or some of the other things that were talked about. Right. And we're putting it over here instead. So that's, that's the, that's the struggle I have with that.
BOGER: You voted against funding for a new A's Stadium on the Las Vegas Strip. Now, there's an effort to pass a massive tax deal to build movie studios in Southern Nevada, at first blush, would that be something? Would that be a deal you could support?
Taylor: I need to know a whole lot more about it, Paul, honestly. I mean, we have a lot of tax credits out there. Right. And so I think we need to really be wise, about about them and about about giving those, and so on, and looking at how, you know, we're getting the return for them that we're supposed to get from them? Is it worth it? Because it's really it's taxpayer dollars? I can't just be a no, because I haven't read it. Right, I will know what it's asking for, I will know what the projections are, I haven't seen the data on it. I like the idea of more supportive industries, creating more jobs, or I stayed to economic development, especially if you look at it in the south, because they really, they're still really solidly gaming based, and can use more, we've done a little better job of that in the north, right, with the Tahoe, Reno, industrial park, and so on with the outdoor industry that we have, and so on. So we need help in the south with that. So I'm open to it. I just need to know a whole lot more about it.
BOGER: What in your opinion, is the state's role in addressing affordable housing?
Taylor: Well, you know, I think there are things that we can do. I mean, a lot of times affordable housing, again, comes from, you know, federal grants. And we got some of those, from a state standpoint, the kinds of things I believe that we can do, we can incentivize incentivize developers, right? To build more affordable housing, those kinds of things, we can make sure that we maximize or even begin to, even more, so we do a little bit, but even more so public private partnerships, right, that can build that how we can't we want with ourselves, we aren't in the housing business, per se as a state, but we will we know, their public their housing authority, their pump, their public entity that needs to be a part of it. But we know we need some private dollars to build it for an example. We can support those things that make sense, right? We can do things like take a look at the corporate moves that we know we have in our state and even here in our community, where we have corporate these large corporate entities that come in and buy up 5060 100 300 home homes, and then Jack the rent price up. Right? We have a lot of that that's going on, how can we get our arms around that a little bit better? Those are the kinds of things or do we have the tenant protections in place? You know, I have a couple of rental properties a little bit here, a little bit in California. And so I understand what it's like to be on the landlord side, but I absolutely do. But we do want to make sure that tenants are treated with respect are treated with respect and are treated fairly. So those are the kinds of thing that was stated. I think we can do the help with that.
BOGER: Ifelected there's a distinct possibility that you could help cement the Democrats supermajority in Carson City. Are you committed now to work in a bipartisan fashion?
Taylor: You know what I can say this I'm committed to working in the way that I've worked in the one session. And right, and that wasn't a bar path, a bipartisan fashion. I mean, I am I am proud that I have bipartisan support on all of my bills that got across the finish line one way or another. So yeah, I mean, I think the the important thing is that we get good policy pass, it's going to make a difference in the lives of the people in our state. Because you know, when I'm out there knocking on the doors, you know, what I don't hear how about that simple majority that we may get. People are gonna forget about that.
Guests: Assemblywoman Angie Taylor, democrat; Mike Ginsburg, republican
