News Conference on Federal Aid for States

NEWS CONFERENCE ON FEDERAL AID FOR STATES

January 9, 2003 Thursday

SEN. REID: Chuck, thank you very much. We all want—every one of us want lower taxes. But this is not the way to do it; Nevada as an example. We have here represented two eastern states, two western states.

Nevada is the most rapidly-growing state in the Union; has been for more than a decade. We can only support what the people of the state of Nevada need by floating bonds; only way we can do it. Highways, school buildings, all the infrastructure needed to take care of that rapidly-growing state, we need to have bonds. People need to purchase those bonds. Under this program, they simply won't do it anymore; or if they do it, it'll be so much more expensive.

Secondly, let me say this. We talk about unfunded mandates. This is something that was brought about in the Gingrich Congress. They talked about unfunded mandates. We thought that was probably a good—that was a good idea, so we joined with the Republicans and said, "No more unfunded mandates." I don't know where that's been lost. Unfunded mandates—whether it's the Leave No Child Behind Act or whether it's homeland security, Nevada is buried with unfunded mandates.

The federal government has passed laws that require the state of Nevada to do certain things. And if we don't do them, we lose school funding, we lose highway money. And with homeland security, those requirements are then placed in our emergency responders.

And what is happening with this legislation that Senator Schumer outlined is that it is just exacerbating an already-difficult problem. It has given us all these unfunded mandates with no help at all financially.

And now what they're doing is taking away our ability to build schools -- (inaudible) -- roads, dams, our sewer systems and our water projects. And I'm so grateful to be here, recognizing that, of course, we all want taxes lowered. But this isn't the way to do it.