Bob Thomas 1926-2013

Bob Thomas, a former state legislator and Carson City School Board member, has died at age 87.

Thomas, a Republican, served three terms in the Nevada Assembly, 1982-1988. During his service, he advocated a service tax in Nevada. With the state shifting from a goods-based to a service-based economy, Nevada's sales tax on goods was dwindling as a revenue producer. Had Thomas succeeded in extending the sales tax to services, it would have made several Nevada budget crises less severe and the tax system fairer, but Democrats—who otherwise sympathized with the service tax idea—were reluctant to let it pass under Republican sponsorship.

After Thomas left the legislature, he moved further right and began writing a column In Carson City's Nevada Appeal that frequently drew complaints.

In a self-penned obituary published after his death by the Appeal, Thomas wrote, “Life owes me nothing and I owe it nothing—zero regrets, a clean slate.”