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Intro 0:00
Ladies and gentlemen, Kevin Wall.
Kevin Wall 0:07
Hour number three, live and local. Good to have you with us. He is a good friend of this radio program. He is a real patriot. He is Brett Sutton, the board president at Keystone, and he's in studio. I love him. I love it when when folks want to come in studio and have a few giggles.
Brett Sutton 0:28
I enjoy it too. Thanks for having me. It's always a good time.
Kevin Wall 0:31
I've got to ask you because whenever I interview you, I always bury the lead. What is Keystone? What is the mission statement?
Brett Sutton 0:40
Keystone Corporation has been around for over 30 years. We celebrated our 30th anniversary last year. We are focused solely on Nevada, and we are a pro-business political action committee. Meaning, our sole purpose is to try to keep Nevada business friendly, to push for lower regulations, lower taxation, and an environment where businesses can come here and thrive-that's what we focus on. We don't get involved in social issues. We focus solely on pro-business policies in the state of Nevada and electing pro-business members of the legislature and state government.
Kevin Wall 1:13
And correct me if I'm wrong, but this is a challenge that is out there every day. You have to fight for this every friggin day.
Brett Sutton 1:22
Every. day, absolutely. Because you know, government always wants to add regulations, add taxation, make it more and more difficult for businesses, and we have to push back on that because if we want Nevada to thrive, if we want Nevada to have jobs for people and opportunity for people, we need to have healthy business environment.
Kevin Wall 1:42
Give me a give me a an example of the type of issues that you won't do versus that you will do.
Brett Sutton 1:53
Well, we won't get involved, for example, in abortion. That's that we leave that up to other people because it's not a business issue, in our opinion, so we would focus on. I'll give you example: the commerce tax, which is a gross receipts tax in Nevada on any gross income of any business of over $4 million, and it's onerous. And we'd like to see the commerce tax repealed, or the very least the $4 billion threshold moved. So there's not as much tax on our wide range of businesses in the state, including small business.
Kevin Wall 2:25
An issue that you will tackle. That that that that for instance, water rights is not sexy. It's it it it's just not. But it's something that people across the state really care about
Brett Sutton 2:41
yes. Well, water is one of those issues that without water there is no business. You know, we we've got to have water in order to continue growing. We want growth. That's what we want. And in order for Nevada to keep growing, to bring businesses here, manufacturing businesses, all different kinds of businesses, you're going to need basic infrastructure, basic services, and among those things, probably primarily among them would be water. So water is a business issue for sure.
Kevin Wall 3:07
Let me let me let me throw something out there. If if water is that important, how come more political people aren't talking more about it. I mean, granted, it's not sexy, it's not cool, but it's it's vital.
Brett Sutton 3:28
That is a fantastic question. It really is, and I've I've wondered that the entire time I've I've lived in Nevada, and I think there's a couple things behind it. One is, as you said, it's not really sexy. It's not immediate, but the other is that I think there's been so much talk about water for so long in Southern Nevada, and yet it just seems to work out that people have sort of dismissed it, and we've gotten to a point where because we haven't planned for new sources of water over the last 100 years, and now we're in a drought-a 26-year drought. Las Vegas has grown dramatically. Phoenix has grown. All of the different metropolitan areas that rely on the Colorado River have grown dramatically from when Hoover Dam was built. We're now in a difficult situation, and it really should have been dealt with many decades ago, to say the Hoover Dam was a wonderful marvel, which it is. I take my grandkids and show it to them, my grandsons, and I read books to them about it because people at Hoover Dam were brilliant, absolutely brilliant, and it's amazing what they did. But we should have been doing something the last 3040, 50 years to say, okay, what's next? Where do we go from here? We've grown. We've got to have new source of water, and that hasn't been done. And so now we're in a very difficult situation. There are solutions, but we're in a tough spot right now.
Kevin Wall 4:50
Is desalinization one of the solutions?
Brett Sutton 4:53
I believe it is. I wrote a editorial about this about a year and a half ago in the Las Vegas Review Journal. And so, California and desalination is the long-term solution, in my opinion. California gets 4.4 million acre feet allocated by far more than anyone else from the Colorado River. Nevada gets 300,000 acre feet by way of comparison. Now, under some recent cuts that have happened from the federal government just announced a few weeks ago, we're going to be cut down to 200,000 acre feet over the next two years. California takes some cuts as well, but their cuts are very small compared to ours, and there's a possibility of future cuts according to the 10 year plan that was just adopted by the Department of Interior, where potentially I hope it doesn't happen, but potentially we could be cut down to under 100,000 acre feet, which would be a very dramatic cut. So when I look at California, I see something called the Pacific Ocean, which, as far as I know, has a lot of water in it-an endless amount of water, as far as right basically. Desalination is now done all over the world. If it wasn't, if it wasn't for desalination, these Middle East countries wouldn't exist. They would be living in tents still, right? And they have these huge areas. They're very successful, in large part because they desalinate water, and it works just fine. The state of Israel has six desalination plants. They have their desert. They're dry as a bone, but they have so much water because they desalinate water. They have tons for agriculture, tons for their people. They actually sell excess water to neighbors. The country of Jordan gets 20% of its water from Israel, so they have abundant water because they desalinate. California, mainly the California Coastal Commission has fought desalination all the way. There's a plant in Carlsbad that works just fine. In fact, we might, as a state of Nevada, purchase some water exchange from them. There's talk of that. They wanted to build a company called Poseidon. Wanted to build a desalination plant in Huntington Beach. Spent hundreds of millions of dollars on all the studies and environmental studies and lawsuits and whatever else, right? Took them 1015, years, somewhere along that, to go through the process. Everybody said yes. California Coastal Commission said no. Killed the project. So we have got to take over the California coast through the federal government and build desolation. California also doesn't have enough water storage. They have the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We've had two in the last 10 years, two epic historic snow years. The California Sierra Nevada Mountains, about 10 years of worth of water in those two years ran into the Pacific Ocean. Literally trillions of gallons of water just ran into the ocean. So, if the federal government will mandate and pay for water storage for California, desalination of California, and in exchange, California gives up its Colorado River water. That's 4.4 million acre feet that stays in the lower basin, which is shared by us, Arizona, and and parts of Mexico. So, in California, of course, but they would give that up, and so right there, you've injected a lot of water. No new pipes, no new infrastructure, but a lot of water in the lower basin. That's a big start. That would put us in a good position.
Kevin Wall 8:15
Okay, what what what type of investment are we talking about billions,
Brett Sutton 8:21
very expensive. There's no doubt about it. You know, a a desalination plant, a quality desalination plant, is well over a billion, billion and a half a piece. So this is not cheap, and they're expensive to operate. There's no doubt about it. But the cost of not having water is very expensive. We're here in the state of Nevada. We have just in Las Vegas well over $10 billion worth of projects that are sitting here that could be built if we had more water, and so when you add up all the cost, if we have dramatic water shortages in in Arizona and Nevada, just those two states alone, it will more than pay for itself.
Kevin Wall 9:03
Is this something that's going to be settled legislatively? Is it something that's going to be done through the courts, or is there another alternative on on on how to get this thing going?
Brett Sutton 9:14
Well, the idea, long term solution, would be through Congress, the United States Congress, and just like Hoover Dam, Hoover Dam was a federal project paid for by federal dollars, and it was economically incredibly successful because the energy generated by Hoover Dam paid for all of that and more. So you know it was great, and the federal government paid for it, and all these states and we you know exist in large part the larger, especially the metropolitan areas because of Hoover Dam, so I think it's the same thing with this. The federal government should pay for it. California would be far better off. You know, they have a drought too. So
Kevin Wall 9:49
what? What? What? What stands in their way?
Brett Sutton 9:51
Well, mainly it's environmental. It's environmentalists. That's really the main problem. California would have more desalination plants. In fact, Cal. California had drawn up a plan many years ago to build more desalination plants, but the environmentalists were against it, and so and it's unrealistic. That like I said, these are built all over the world. Their oceans are just fine. It works just great. There hasn't been any catastrophes or anything. It's been a huge blessing. That's what needs to happen on the California coast, as well as additional water storage to California, and they give up the Colorado River water. California be better off. Arizona, Nevada be better off.
Kevin Wall 10:28
Again, Brett Sutton joining us from the from Keystone. Is there any effort right now that's out there that that is ready to go to say we're going to do this. Here is billions of dollars. Here is a source of funding,
Brett Sutton 10:45
not to the extent there should be. There is a lot of discussion behind the scenes, and I know people who you know like me support it. But we need we need really we need President Trump to step forward. Is what we we need. We need him to save the American Southwest, and and if he did this, he would historically be the person who saved the American Southwest, change the course of history. If if he would do this,
Kevin Wall 11:10
how long would this take?
Brett Sutton 11:12
Years. It's it's not a short term solution. It's a longer term solution. So you know, depends on how all the approval process, everything else, but it could it would take years for sure. It's not going to happen overnight. The only short term solution, as I see it, and it's not a long term solution, but a short term, is the federal government to pay some of the Imperial Valley farmers to fallow their land. They get most of California's allocation, and they have superior water rights, and so if they can, like in the next few years, fallow some of their land, federal government pays them for that. That would leave more water in Lake Mead, at least in the short term. It's not a long term solution, but that would help in the short term.
Kevin Wall 11:53
We've got another legislative session set set to go next year, and I guess my question is: Is there any indication that there's a bunch of people with political courage that are willing to fight this fight in Carson City? This is growing.
Brett Sutton 12:11
I think we find. I think what's happened. I think so. And I know the governor has taken the lead on Nevada's the first state to file a lawsuit to challenge this, and so he's taking the lead on that. I know he's paying a lot of attention to it, and I think others are as well. You know, but it's going to take a federal government solution to this. It's not just going to be a state solution. It's we're going to have to have the federal government involved because it's involving basically a dispute between different states, and the only one that can resolve that is the federal government. Legally, it would be the U.S. Supreme Court, but all the U.S. Supreme Court is going to do is determine water rights between the states to the Colorado River water. We need more water. That's a long-term solution. That's not going to come from the Supreme Court. That will have to come from the U.S. Congress and the President.
Kevin Wall 12:58
Let's let's let's get to the fun stuff.
Brett Sutton 13:01
Okay, let's do
Kevin Wall 13:02
it. We've got we've got on september 17 the annual dinner, and I know from experience you guys throw a great party, and this this this year's may be the best of all.
Brett Sutton 13:16
Yes, it is. Thank you. It's it is. It's always fun. We sold out last year, we're going to sell out this year. So if anyone wants to buy tickets, you need to do so quickly. It's september 17. It's at South Point. Our guest speaker is Kaylee McEnany from Fox News Channel. Yes, she's on Fox News Channel, of course, former press spokesperson for President Trump during his first term, and she will be our guest speaker. We're honoring Don Ahern. We're a business group, and so every year we choose a business person who we give the Monty Miller Economic Freedom Award because that's what we're about promoting economic freedom. So we're going to honor Don Ahern, and he'll be there for all of his business success and everything he's done for the state, politically and otherwise, and then we're also going to honor John Tsarpalas. John Tsarpalas is a great guy, fantastic guy. He's also done enormous amount for the state as president of executive director. I think it is of Nevada policy for many years, and he's stepping down from that role. And we just think he's done a fantastic job. He's been a board member of Keystone for many years as well, and we're very proud of him and all this, all that he has done. He had a lot to do himself individually, along with Nevada policy defeating ranked choice voting. People may forget this, but it passed the first time, and he helped defeat it the second time. But wasn't for his efforts, I think it would have passed. So you got to give him a lot of credit. That's just the beginning of what he's accomplished. So we're going to recognize him. We're very proud of him as our fellow board member. We're going to recognize him at the dinner. The governor will be there. The lieutenant governor, many state officials, many legislators, many from the conservative media, including yourself, Planner. I know you were there last year. Hope you'll be there this year. And so it's going to be a great time.
Kevin Wall 15:03
We've got an election coming up on november 3. How active will Keystone be in that? And and and will you support candidates? Will you hand out checks? Both.
Brett Sutton 15:15
We both we've already done our endorsement. So and you can go. Anyone can go to our website keysnevada.com, which is also how you sign up for the dinner, by the way. KeystoneNevada.com, and you can go there and you can see the candidates who we've endorsed. We interview candidates extensively, and we make endorsements based on pro-business policies. Obviously, we're supporting Governor Lombardo. I think it's a really important race for obvious reasons. This election, he has been a great pro-business governor. He has reduced about, but people don't really know this. He's eliminated about 900 administrative regulations during his first term. You know, when do you see that? Every everyone else adds regulations, right? He's eliminated 900. Didn't raise taxes, and so he's been a very good pro-business governor. So we're definitely supporting him. And he, by the way, the other thing is that we have a board member, Dave Gibbs, who was involved in the getting voter ID in the ballot. Question seven. Question seven. And it's on the ballot this year. And if it passes this year, everyone needs to know it'll be part of the Nevada Constitution. We will forever have voter ID before someone can vote, which would be huge. Well, Governor Lombardo really came to the rescue. That was the effort was out of money, and they needed money to get it over the finish line. And I can say from personal knowledge, he got the money. And if it wasn't for him, voter ID would not be on the ballot. So he's done a lot of good things. So he'll be there, and we've endorsed him a long time ago for re-election for governor, for all those reasons.
Kevin Wall 16:45
It's going to be fascinating. Well, a couple of months actually, but it's going to be it's going to be here before you know it. One more time, if people want to purchase tickets to the annual dinner, see Kaylee McInnes. Where do they go? How do they? How do they find you?
Brett Sutton 17:04
Just go to keystonenevada.com, keystonenevada.com. That's it.
Kevin Wall 17:09
You make it so easy, Brett. Thank you so much. Always good to see you, and thanks for coming in studio.
Brett Sutton 17:14
Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.
Kevin Wall 17:15
There you go. Talking about Keystone. Stick around. More to do as we continue on AM 670 KMZQ.
