LETTERS: Stadium plan a lousy deal for taxpayers

To the editor:

I wish to congratulate the mayor and the members of the Las Vegas City Council who voted for a downtown soccer stadium this city desperately does not need (“Las Vegas Council approves soccer stadium subsidy,” Dec. 18 Review-Journal).

The council stated that it will contribute about $50 million in taxpayer money — I’m sorry, I mean City Council money — in bond principal and interest in addition to 13 acres of prime land valued at $38 million to $48 million, a $24 million parking garage, a 30-year guarantee at $3 million in yearly upkeep and $31.5 million in infrastructure improvements, and Councilman Bob Coffin is worried about developing a man crush on Councilman Bob Beers? He should be worried about the sorry financial state that he and the mayor are trying to put the city in.

It doesn’t sound like a great deal to this taxpayer. What is that sound of construction we hear down the road, on the Strip? Oh, it’s an arena being built without taxpayer money. What a novel idea.

Mr. Coffin, with the above expenditure of funds, you and the mayor could build quite a few parks on the east side of town. That could be a great legacy by itself.

It is also reported that the Findlay/Cordish group will spend $100 million to buy a Major League Soccer team. I wonder who is making out on this deal.

THOMAS C. MALICH SR.

LAS VEGAS

Tule Springs decision

To the editor:

I was heartened to see the editors of the Review-Journal acknowledge the value of the recent public lands designations that passed Congress thanks to the leadership of Sen. Harry Reid (“Senate approves new national monument at edge of Las Vegas,” Dec. 13 Review-Journal). It has been far too long since Congress acted on these types of bills, and I was glad to see Nevada’s whole delegation put aside partisan politics and do what was best for the state.

I hope they will continue to do that because we have several other public lands challenges and opportunities facing us, such as effectively managing sage grouse habitat in the North and protecting Gold Butte here in Southern Nevada.

MIRANDA JONES

LAS VEGAS

Anti-Obama bias

To the editor:

In his Dec. 19 televised news conference, President Barack Obama summarized a few of America’s recent accomplishments:

“2014 [is] the strongest year for job growth since the 1990s. Over a 57-month streak, our businesses have created nearly 11 million new jobs. Almost all the job growth that we’ve seen has been in full-time positions. Much of the recent pickup in job growth has been in higher-paying industries. [For] middle-class families, wages are on the rise again. Our investments in American manufacturing have helped fuel its best stretch of job growth also since the 1990s. America is now the number-one producer of oil, the number-one producer of natural gas. We’re saving drivers about 70 cents a gallon at the pump over last Christmas. Our rescue of the auto industry is officially over. We’ve now repaid taxpayers every dime and more of what my administration committed, and the American auto industry is on track for its strongest year since 2005. And we’ve created about half a million new jobs in the auto industry alone.

“Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, about 10 million Americans have gained health insurance just this past year. Enrollment is beginning to pick up again during the open enrollment period. The uninsured rate is at a near record low. Since the law passed, the price of health care has risen at its slowest rate in about 50 years. And we’ve cut our deficits by about two-thirds since I took office, bringing them to below their 40-year average.”

Why was there no mention of these accomplishments in the Review-Journal’s coverage of the year-end news conference? Could it be because the editors of the Review-Journal prefer that voters don’t see facts favorable to the Obama administration? It is disappointing that subscribers to the Review-Journal must depend on other, less-biased sources to get coverage of important facts like these. For those who missed it, videos of the news conference are available on Youtube and C-SPAN.

MICHAEL WINNE

HENDERSON