Governments just keep piling on
To the editor:
As one of the owners of a small, family-owned construction company here in Las Vegas, I have reached the end of my rope with the knowledge that the Las Vegas Valley Water District is going to charge my company an additional $80.82 a month to pay for a Southern Nevada Water Authority infrastructure charge.
I also get to pay a smaller charge on my home water bill.
We, along with other small construction companies, have been hanging on by our fingernails during the past four years, doing our best to keep our employees on and our bills paid. And still, government entities are pawing through our pockets for our last dollar.
Why should we even try to do business in this town when governments keep throwing new regulations and fees in our path?
Phyllis Weaver
Las Vegas
Bogus lawsuits
To the editor:
In response to your Tuesday editorial on the lawsuit to stop the proposed water pipeline from rural Nevada to Las Vegas:
There are an estimated 5 million species of animals and plants that exist on Earth, with only 1.5 million identified. Each year, thousands of them become extinct – and likely the same number newly develop. If stopping the water pipeline is about saving snails, where do we stop?
The environmentalists have now even extended their objections to minerals. In Utah, they claim that dust throw-off from oil drilling trucks will obscure the petroglyphs. But storms over thousands of years have deposited dust that has later been washed away by other rainstorms.
Congress needs to stop these bogus lawsuits.
Henry Schmid
Las Vegas
The real 1 percent
To the editor:
By now everyone is familiar with the so-called 99 percent, who are the supposed victims of the so-called 1 percent, who alledgedly aren’t paying their fair share of taxes.
Well, I am writing about the other 99 percent. Who is that, you ask? The 99 percent of us who labor in the private sector at wages and benefits far below those of the public sector in order to pay the taxes that support the other 1 percent: public-sector employees.
For example, officials with the Clark County firefighters union brag that they have agreed to concessions that have lowered the average firefighter pay and benefit package from $189,000 a year to $175,000 a year. That I have to use six figures to describe this “sacrifice” is an indictment of the incestuous relationship between public-sector unions and the politicians who sign off on these obscenely rich contracts.
Firefighters will tell you that they are highly compensated because of the dangerous nature of their jobs. Let’s look at this claim and put it in context.
A little research on the Internet will tell you the odds of a combat soldier losing his life in battle is about 150 times greater than a firefighter losing his life battling a fire. One would think that the soldier would be paid more than the firefighter for assuming the much greater risk, but one would be wrong.
According to the U.S. Army, the average pay and benefits for all soldiers – officer and enlisted – is about $99,000 a year. So we the taxpayers are paying Clark County firefighters 77 percent more than we pay the soldiers who are fighting and dying for our freedom in wars overseas.
It is not my intent to pick on the firefighters, because they are the tip of the iceberg. All public-sector employees, with the possible exception of schoolteachers, are just as overcompensated as the firefighters. If now – during the worst recession, highest unemployment and greatest housing collapse in the history of this county – is not the time to cut these pay and benefit packages in half or more, then when is the time?
Mike Edens
Las Vegas
Need to heed
To the editor:
Three major recent stories involve families and death: the deadly attack on the Martinez family, the baby-killing pet dog, and yet another toddler in a swimming pool.
The grandmother of the alleged killer of the Martinez family says she “couldn’t imagine in a million years” that her grandson could be guilty – although she refused to let him sleep at her home.
The father of the Henderson baby said, “I never thought that dog would do anything to my son.” The mastiff-Rhodesian ridgeback “was the only thing that kept” grandmother “strong.”
Then there was the rescued 2-year-old who opened the screen door and fell into the unfenced pool while two generations were otherwise not watching, dead certain the toddler could not get into danger with them at home.
No auditorium in this county could hold the families of all the babies and youths who we have read about these past few years who never thought, couldn’t imagine, had no idea that their loved ones could come to mischief. Yet we read about these families every week.
We breed but we do not heed.
Richard O’Malley
Las Vegas
Moral abdication
To the editor:
Mitt Romney claims he would have had the courage to take out Osama bin Laden.
I am not so sure.
When a homophobic South Carolina debate crowd booed a combat Marine sergeant, Mr. Romney chose not to defend the Marine’s concerns. This moral abdication occurred at the very time the Marine was risking his life for our freedom in Afghanistan.
If Mr. Romney can’t muster a good word for the best man amongst us in front of the grandchildren of Jim Crow in South Carolina, how will he fare under more stressful circumstances?
Joe Marroso
Las Vegas
Free trip
To the editor:
Let’s see if I have this right. The president’s wife flies to Las Vegas for free – excuse me, I meant on the taxpayers’ dime – to collect $300,000 for her husband’s election.
No wonder Newt Gingrich owes money. He wasn’t smart enough to charge his campaigning to the taxpayer.
Ron Moers
Henderson
