By Mark Waite
Nye County Commissioner Dan Schinhofen Tuesday balked at applying for a $32,400 State Fund for a Healthy Nevada grant that would fund a food bank and provide a monthly grocery voucher to low income, disabled adults at the Nye County Department of Health and Human Services.
The grant, administered through the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services, wouldn’t require a county match. Schinhofen cast the sole vote against the application. Individuals would be screened for other programs they may be entitled to, including food stamps, Medicaid and state energy assistance.
Schinhofen has brandished his Libertarian credentials in opposing government aid for various functions in the past. Ironically, the first-term commissioner lists income from Social Security Insurance Disability SSI on his financial disclosure form with the Nevada Secretary of State’s office along with his $26,000 annual salary as county commissioner and income from the Rio Hotel and Casino.
“It does not specify you have to be a citizen to receive these benefits. The other thing with these benefits, it’s for disabled people to set up a food bank and give out food vouchers. It says in the backup there’s eight food banks already in Pahrump and two in Tonopah,” Schinhofen said.
“I just don’t see the need for the county to be in this business also. I know it’s going to be characterized as I hate disabled people and poor people, but that’s not the point. It goes back to, if you have trouble, family, faith and friends are who you go to, not the government,” he said.
Nye County Manager Pam Webster said the Nye County Health and Human Services Department already stocks a food bank in the office. There’s space for the county HHS food bank in the new building opening on the Calvada Eye, she said.
Nye County Commissioner Butch Borasky, who sits on the NyE Communities Coalition board, fired back at Schinhofen:
“I do not see his rear end in a seat over at our community outreach meetings at Oasis Outreach . There’s a lot of folks in town who rely on every scrap of food they can get. You can say what you like about being a citizen or not, when people are starving here it’s our obligation as citizens and community leaders to make sure they get fed.”
Schinhofen replied: “I don’t think it’s the government’s place to feed people.”
An executive summary of the application states Nye County has the highest food insecurity rate in Nevada at 19.8 percent. That is defined as someone who doesn’t know where they’ll find their next meal.
According to the Center for Personal Assistance Services, 5.5 percent of the county population from 16 to 64 years old is disabled and needs personal care assistance, a rate more than twice the statewide percentage.
The program would allow disabled adults who have an income less than 230 percent of the poverty level to receive $50 worth of food monthly and a $40 grocery voucher.
Nye County Commissioner Dan Schinhofen needs to be reprimanded and reminded.. WE have the say, YOU are the representative and a mouthpiece that our wishes be fulfilled for OUR townspeople.. YOU baffoon. It is not the governments job to feed the people..? It was also not the governments job to put us in the financial cesspool we all face, but it happened. Schinhofen’s survival because of Social Security money makes me laugh that he has the views he does.. Two faced dontcha think?? If people are hungry DAN , they need to eat. IT IS A WORLDWIDE problem. I dont appreciate illegals getting help but I will not starve them to prove a point. GO TO CHURCH DAN, YOU NEED SOME SPIRITUAL INSIGHT..AND! Study on how to be a responsible commisioner, we will all thank you!
Dan Schinhofen is anything but qualified for the position he holds. If we’re lucky he won’t win a second term and there is no doubt that he will run again
(easy money with little effort would be too good for him to pass up).
Sorry but I lean to what Schinhofen is saying. We already have a whole lot of charitable orgs out here that hand out food, If HHS is going to get involved I want to make sure anyone getting freebies is a US Citizen as well.
And NyE Communities Coalition, who seems to be on a jihad against smokers anywhere they go, has zero right to say anything about this. If they love illegals so much let them pony up the cash to feed them. Out government should NOT be feeding anyone who is not in the country illegally.
I also get a kick out of those who bring up the issue of him being on SSDI. If they thought for a second perhaps they would realize that people PAY into that fund. Its not a government hand out, its simply run by the government with OUR money.
Good for Dan.
There’s enough welfare around here. SOMEBODY pays for this. This is not just money that grows on trees.
Is there never enough handouts?
That would be true if this were “new money,” but it’s not. It’s already been appropriated and will be spent somewhere. The motion was to apply for the grant. If the money is going to be spent anyway, why not get it for our citizens here who need help? Besides, Danny rails against government giveaways yet there he sits drawing Social Security disability and taking taxpayer’s money for being a Commissioner. It appears that without government money he would be in the food line, himself.
“Danny rails against government giveaways yet there he sits drawing Social Security disability”
You seem to forget that Dan, you, myself and everyone else pays into Social Security in the event they become disabled.
This isn’t government money, its money everyone pays into a fund. It’s certainly not welfare or a hand out.
For shame. We have many disabled veterans who were injured in our service. The disability payments they receive are meager for a family. So you are saying that those who are disabled should send their children out to beg on the street for food????? The private charities are overwhelmed and can’t handle the need. We owe these disabled people and their children assistance. I am disgusted with the people here in Pahrump who are so selfish that they won’t agree to the small thousands of dollars being proposed to feed the families of our disabled veterans. For shame.
I agree with Dan’s position on this.
I also agree with Dan on this one. Too many people are addicted to these handouts. Our money need to stop falling off these entitlement trees
hand up vs hand out-I agree hungry is hungry-and if you knew what an average disabled persons monthly payout was you;d be ashamed you thought about vetoing this. What I really dont understand is how this guy gets SSDI & an income-per the laws governing disability-there cant be any income earned by that individual-so how is he getting away with this? Maybe that should be investigated
although i am loathe to agree with anything that dan is for….i guess i am split on this one.
i am against giving illegals anything but a free ride back to where ever it is they came from but at the same time… i am against letting anyone starve.
it just isn’t the humane thing to do. if i see a hungry person i would try to feed that person despite my personal feelings of him/her.
i would feed a person i hate just because no one should ever go hungry.
i would turn them in but i would still feed them.
Dan Schinhofen is clueless. Hopefully the voters in District 5 will recall him from office or someone intelligent will run for Commissioner in two years. This is what happens when high school drop outs making $25,000 a year get to make million dollar decisions.