Counter culture

Republican candidate for governor Jim Gibbons, who talked about shutting down the Nevada Railroad Museum in Carson City during an interview in Las Vegas, also talked about whether to fund a southern Nevada museum when he was doing an interview in Reno.

Gibbons’ continued use of museums as a symbol of waste or unnecessary spending has caused concern in arts and culture circles.

In both interviews, Gibbons was talking about whether there would be money left over for other programs after funding education under his ballot initiative petition that would require the legislature to deal with school funding before other spending priorities.

After being burned by reaction to his comments about the railroad museum and issuing a retraction, he shifted his focus to a safer non-existent museum. In an interview with Willie Albright on KUNR, Gibbons said, “Put everything we need into the education budget and at the end of the day when you look at that amount of money left over and say, ‘I don’t have enough for a museum in Laughlin, Nevada,’ well, then you can have that debate about raising taxes and see if that justifies [higher taxes].”

There is no state museum in Laughlin.