MARK WAITE / PVT Chuck Stevens, standing, general manager of the Saga Mine, chats with Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons during a stopover at the Ensenada Grill in Beatty Sunday. Other residents chatting with the governor include Paul Richards, seated, at front left, and Wayne Brotherton Sr., with the sunglasses. Advertisement

Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons pledged to make every community the state capitol for a day, to bring government to the people.

"I will, by proclamation, declare for that day, Pahrump is the capitol of the State of Nevada," Gibbons told a crowd at a Nye County Republican Party fundraiser at the Pahrump Nugget Casino Saturday night. "I think it's unfair some people have to drive hundreds of miles to interact with their government."

The traveling capitol is a concept used in other states and would involve bringing the governor's cabinet to town for a day to familiarize residents with the state government officials and listen to local concerns.

"When you call somebody, not only do you know who they are, they know who you are," Gibbons said.

Gibbons made a swing through Nye County over the weekend on a rural tour of 10 communities.

"We're here to bring the state government out to more rural communities and get them out of their ivory towers, to let them see, let them hear, let them feel what it's like to live in the rural communities throughout Nevada," Gibbons said.

During the speech to the Republican faithful, he reminisced on the last legislative session. Gibbons talked about the empowerment schools.

"We provided more money for education, more money than ever before, than any governor, for the education of our children in the state of Nevada," Gibbons said. "We want you as principals, as teachers, as parents, to control the future of your child's education."

The empowerment schools will allow decisions on budgets, teachers, curriculum, length of the school day and number of days in the school year, to be decided locally, he said.

"This pilot project is going to allow our rural school districts to deal with the uniqueness of our students," Gibbons said.

The governor also lauded steps to improve transportation, though his attempt to redirect Las Vegas tourism revenues to road construction struggled.

"We went from a $1.2 billion transportation budget to a $2.4 billion transportation budget without raising one penny of your taxes," Gibbons said. "We did it all on that good-old fashioned Republican mantra that you can do things without raising taxes."

Gibbons applauded Nevada District 36 Assemblyman Ed Goedhart, R-Amargosa Valley, whom he first mistakenly called a congressman, for standing by his administration. He also applauded Nye County School Superintendent Rob Roberts, whom he named to a transition task force on education and another on methamphetamine.

"Yes, we had transportation challenges. There were a lot of people who wanted us to raise your taxes. But I don't think I look around this room and see too many people who don't drive a car. Well, if I have to raise your gas taxes, and I pump gas when I put it in my vehicle, I feel the same pain you do when I see that gas meter rise and rise and rise and it costs me more and more and more," Gibbons said.

The governor paid his first visit to Desert View Regional Medical Center since it opened in May 2006. He brought along Michael Willden, Nevada director of health and human services, a familiar name in the Pahrump media during attempts by previous companies to obtain the certificate of need necessary for a hospital here.

When asked what the state could do to help Desert View Regional, Gibbons said it could "give the assistance needed to provide opportunities for doctors of various specialties, whether it's orthopedics, pediatrics or other specialists that are needed in a community of this size."

The governor repeatedly stressed that government cares about people in rural Nevada.

"If one fails, they all fail, and health care is a quality of life issue, probably a cornerstone of quality of life, of success, in a rural community," Gibbons said.

Would Nevada ever institute a state health plan like California is considering? The governor chuckled.

"We are like most other states, we do have a number of uninsured in our population. We want to make every effort to provide health care for the citizens of Nevada. Sometimes those that are insured pick up a much heavier burden or a bigger share of that health care cost, when there are a higher number of uninsured," Gibbons said.

Director of Business and Industry Mendy Elliott was also along on the tour. Gibbons said Elliott's office oversees efforts to encourage small businesses to offer health insurance.

"It's a very broad area with no single answer to it, because there's a lot of challenges out there," the governor said.

Now that there's a hospital in Pahrump, Gibbons was asked about a community college campus.

"I am aware of the interest in that community college out here, and certainly, when you have a city of 40,000 people, or I should say town, we're obviously on the edge of serious consideration of providing an educational opportunity at the upper educational levels," Gibbons said.

When it comes to state assistance, Willden indicated Nye Regional Medical Center in Tonopah could get help from Carson City on a $919,539 medical indigent bill rejected by Nye County commissioners Sept. 4.

"In order to access other state funds -- one called the indigent accident fund, the other called the supplemental relief fund -- hospitals have to present their bills to any other paying source and have to basically get a rejection on the books. Then they can take their bills to these other funds," Willden said.

The "Nevada One" bus made a stop at the Ensenada Grill in Beatty for lunch Sunday. Paul Richards complained about his veteran's benefits, including the lack of public transportation to Reno and Las Vegas, while Gibbons ate his taco salad. Wayne Brotherton Sr. wanted something done about roadside memorials and suggested illegal immigrants crossing the U.S. border without documents or visas during a time of war should be classified as spies or saboteurs.

Chuck Stevens, general manager of the Saga Gold Mine, updated the governor on the reopening of the gold mine, one of the few bright spots in the Beatty economy.

Like other candidates on the stump, Gibbons advocated alternative energy projects as an option for rural economies, like Beatty, as well as mining.

"Here is a perfect place. Why couldn't we use some of our energy production of renewable energy whether it's solar, wind, I don't know what the geothermal aspect is. We're near a working grid, we got a work force here, we could use that energy to help stimulate the economy," Gibbons said.

While his Pahrump visit was limited to a $250 fund raising dinner and a quick visit to the hospital, press spokeswoman Melissa Subbotin said Pahrump residents shouldn't feel slighted. The governor pays numerous visits to Pahrump, she said -- his latest was to present medals during a ceremony at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post in April -- while other communities like Beatty seldom see the state's top executive.