(Sparks, NV) – Five-term Assemblyman Don Gustavson has announced that he will seek the Nevada State Senate seat in District 2 overseeing portions of Lyon, Storey, and Washoe Counties. The seat is being vacated by Republican Senator Maurice Washington due to term limits. Gustavson, a Republican, currently represents Assembly District 32.
Gustavson is well known as a fighter for lower taxes and smaller government. During the 2003 legislative session, Gustavson helped lead the fight to defeat the Gross Receipts Tax and the creation of a Nevada-style IRS.
“If we want to stimulate Nevada’s economy we must start by lowering the taxes on existing businesses, thereby allowing them to hire more employees and provide better benefits,” Gustavson said in a written statement announcing his candidacy. “Creating a friendlier tax environment would also encourage other businesses and home-buyers to want to come to Nevada.”
As a state senator, Gustavson says one of his top priorities will be to protect taxpayers from overbearing and wasteful government programs by passing into law a Tax & Spending Control law during the 2011 legislative session. Such a bill would limit government spending to population growth plus inflation.
He also said legislators need to get serious about illegal immigration. “Nevada’s state, county and city governments are finding it difficult to sustain their budgets, and hospitals are struggling to stay open,” Gustavson writes in his announcement. “One solution to help resolve this circumstance is to create legislation that would remove all non-emergency benefits to those persons who are in our state illegally.”
Gustavson also stated that legislators needed to become more open-minded about fixing education in Nevada. “Nevada’s students deserve the best quality education available and they should not be restricted to a monopolistic system that has shown very little improvement over many years,” he says.
Gustavson is a retired truck driver who has resided in Nevada for over 40 years. He has three children and eight grandchildren, including a granddaughter who is presently serving on the USS Ronald Reagan.
