This is one in a series of profiles of legislative newcomers. 

ASSEMBLYMAN TOM ROBERTS

• Freshman Republican who succeeds Republican Assemblyman Paul Anderson, who left his seat after the 2017 session to become executive director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development under Gov. Brian Sandoval.
• Represents District 13, which includes part of the northwest corner of Las Vegas.
• District 13 leans Republican (41 percent Republican, 33 percent Democratic and 27 percent nonpartisan or other in the 2018 election).
• Roberts defeated Steve Sanson and James Kemp in the Republican primary with 65.8 percent of the vote, or a little less than 2,400 total votes.
• He defeated Independent American Party candidate Leonard Foster by 29.6 points, or 7,782 votes, in the general election.
• He will sit on the Growth and Infrastructure, Judiciary and Legislative Operations and Elections committees.

FAMILY AND EDUCATION:

Roberts was born in Tennessee in 1964 and grew up in neighboring Kentucky. In 1993, he received his associate’s degree in criminal justice from the Community College of the Air Force before receiving a bachelor’s in education from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1999 and a master of human relations degree from the University of Oklahoma in 2016. He is married to Maria Roberts and in his free time enjoys running, weight training, biking and hiking.

CAREER:

Roberts joined the Air Force at 19, spending more than nine years as a law enforcement specialist. He eventually separated in order to join the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, where he spent nearly 25 years until his retirement in 2018 as an assistant sheriff.

ON NEVADA AND THE ISSUES:

What are your top three legislative priorities for the 2019 legislative session?

Public safety, education and public health.

What programs/parts of the state government could be cut? What programs/areas need more funding in 2019?

There are several boards that could be consolidated or reduced. If you look at the number of boards, there's a ton of oversight boards. Surely with that many boards, there might be room for some consolidation to put together some of that responsibility.

Medicaid and education will need increased funding this upcoming session. In Medicaid, the reimbursement rates are an issue. How much that is, I don't know, but I know that in my talks with people there is a need for additional funding there. And in education, obviously the governor's budget asks for an increase for teacher salaries, so there'll be an increase there. But there's obviously a need for increased funding in those two areas.

What specifically should Nevada do to improve health care this session? How about education?

We need to attract more doctors to Nevada by streamlining licensing. We can do some things, break down barriers, so that we attract more doctors and providers into our community and streamline that process. I've been told by folks in that industry that it takes a considerable amount of time to get licensing here in the state of Nevada, and anything we can do to reduce that and make it more attractive to providers, the better off we are.   

We also need to look at the Medicaid reimbursement rates to ensure that our health providers and hospitals can continue to provide services.

Specifically, Sunrise Hospital's pediatric unit has brought up concerns about their ability to continue that service. A majority of their patients are on Medicaid, and that's very expensive care. [Sunrise Hospital provides] that service, and the reimbursable rates are lower than they are in other states, and some of these providers can absorb that cost elsewhere, but when it becomes such a large percentage of your patient population, it can actually put their ability to provide care in jeopardy.

Should Nevada raise its Renewable Portfolio Standard to 100 percent by 2050? If not, what should the state's RPS compliance standard be?

If the renewable portfolio doesn't appear that it's going to increase rates to the consumers, whether in the business or private sector — which, in all likelihood, it looks like the industry is bringing an affordable product — I think it's doable.

Do you support modifying or eliminating current property tax caps in state law?

Property tax caps provide protection to homeowners from huge increases. I would be open to discussing the possibility of having a graduated rate as they go down in a recession or as properties devalue so that you provide stable funding for local governments.

We have a cap to protect homeowners going up, but in the event of a recession and values going down, the rate drops down a considerable amount and it can never go back up because the rate is capped. So if you graduate it going down, you would be able to provide stable funding for local governments.

Are there any particular issues on which you see yourself working across party lines? If so, which ones? If not, why not?

I will work across the aisle on all issues. I think we all have common ground on public safety and what's best for the state, and I think we can find common ground on education to some degree and in providing a healthy business climate.

We may not agree on everything. We all agree that education is important, but we're probably going to have disagreements on how we fund it and how we deliver it. But I think for the most part, we have a lot of common ground on those core areas.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.