Dan Schwartz says it’s time Nevada hired a businessman to be governor.
And with both a law degree and a Masters in Business Administration, Schwartz, who’s now treasurer, says he’s the guy to do the job.
“I want to be governor because I want to start managing this state properly,” he said. “The state is just financially mismanaged.
“On top of that, we hand out (tax) abatements like Christmas candy,” he said.
He said his primary opponent Adam Laxalt is a lawyer — “zero business ability.”
Schwartz said his likely Democratic opponents also lack the business experience.
Steve Sisolak, he described as “basically running a telemarketing firm.”
Sisolak was a partner in American Distributing Co., which sells promotional items to businesses. He, like Schwartz, has an MBA.
Chris Giunchigliani he described as “a wonderful lady.” But he said her proposals are from “Fantasy Land.”
“Free health care, free schools, transportation for seniors — none of this is real. How is she going to do this?”
“We need to have some competent financial management, to control huge projects that don’t have financial underpinnings,” he said.
The tax abatements being handed out by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, he said, don’t make sense.
“This is a great state to do business in,” Schwartz said. “No corporate tax, no personal income tax. For the price of a garage in San Diego, you can buy a house in Nevada.”
He added Nevada’s business regulatory scheme is far less burdensome than other states.
“Why do we feel obligated to give away the store to get people here?”
He said the Raider Stadium project is a huge example of what Nevada shouldn’t do.
“I want the $750 million (in bonds) back,” he said. “That’s our money.”
“This deal is going to blow up in about a year,” he said. “It’s a $2 billion project floating on a sea of debt.”
Schwartz said his business expertise is visible in how he’s run the treasurer’s office for the past three and a half years.
He said he saved the state up to $175 million by refusing to bond for Faraday Future and quadrupled the return on investment of the state’s portfolio.
Schwartz said he learned while living in France and Hong Kong, “if you build the infrastructure, the people will come.”
He was a strong proponent of the Educational Savings Accounts before that program was killed by the Democratic-controlled Legislature.
“I will not sign any bill (as governor) until I have a bill on my desk that includes ESAs,” he said. But he said ESAs, which opponents claim are vouchers, aren’t the only solution.
”I want to do more career paths for kids starting in the lower grades,” he said. “Kids who are not going to go to college, why not start training them?”
He said immigration is Congress’ problem to fix but Nevada needs electricians, plumbers and other tradesmen.
“The state needs to go out and recruit these people and they’re probably going to come from Mexico,” he said.
He said he strongly opposes the Energy Choice Initiative because it wouldn’t provide energy choice and would put deregulation in the state constitution.
“That’s a huge mistake,” he said. “What Question 3 is really about is Sheldon Adelson getting mad because he didn’t want to pay to get disconnected from the grid,” a reference to the fees major electric customers must pay to leave NV Energy.
On healthcare, he said, “we need to separate cuts and scrapes insurance from catastrophic insurance.”
He said up to 90 percent of doctor visits are for those types of smaller issues, not major medical problems. He said healthcare is also a federal problem to fix but Nevada won’t get stuck with the bill.
“Congress, for all its conservative rhetoric, is actually pretty liberal,” Schwartz said. “They’ve really done very little to cut social programs and I don’t think that’s going to change.”
He said he supports voter-ID legislation.
“You have to show ID to get on an airplane, ID to check into a hotel, ID to cash a check,” he said. “Voting, I just think there should be ID.”