Hey, tax raisers: You can’t get blood from a stone
To the editor:
Well, the economic geniuses in the Democratic Party have come up with another winner — a winner for the “something for nothing” crowd, that is. A tax hike (“Business revenue targeted,” Friday Review-Journal). Imagine that!
It is amazing that these people have no idea how the real world works. As a private-sector taxpayer, I have some news for them: I am broke. Where in the world am I supposed to get the money to pay for their vote-buying scams?
I have been following the “news” coming out of Carson City, and I must say the Republicans aren’t much better. Neither party has addressed the real problem facing Nevada — the lack of industrial jobs.
Without a prosperous private sector, well, there just isn’t any money for the tax takers. Is there not one elected official in the entire Silver State who understands this?
Bruce Feher
Las Vegas
No more cuts
To the editor:
In response to Wednesday’s story, “Democrats reject education spending cuts”:
We live in a world that is constantly changing and that requires us to adapt to changing times. Those who can adapt survive. Those who are immutable will not survive. We can apply this natural law to our current economic crisis.
Gov. Brian Sandoval appears unwilling to modify his “no new taxes” credo, offering no alternative solutions to sustaining support for public education, which will have irreversible consequences for this state’s future and frustrate its ability to reinvent itself (as it has done successfully in the past). Nevada’s educational institutions have already tried to adapt to severely reduced funding over the past three years. But as with any natural system, there are limits beyond which the system can no longer properly function and may cease to exist.
Passively accepting the status quo of reduced revenue is just not acceptable for a true leader who is interested in improving the lot of all of Nevada’s citizens and not just the businesses that profit from and employ them. There are so many viable avenues of revenue generation for the state that have not been thoroughly examined and have been outright dismissed for no logical reasons. For instance, implementing a lottery; enacting a broad-based energy consumption tax; properly enforcing extant taxation laws on mining companies (e.g.) that have not paid their fair share of taxes; making vertical instead of horizontal cuts (e.g. shutting down low-enrollment satellite campuses in the far-flung, underpopulated and desolate regions of the state); allowing respective institutions of higher learning to keep their tuition revenue; and keeping alive the taxes scheduled to sunset June 30.
At least the Democrats are trying to find a compromise that recognizes that education is far too important for our leaders to passively ignore. I am shocked and deeply disappointed that Republicans appear immutable and won’t work together with Democrats to compromise on this issue, which will not be forgotten by the state’s voters for a long time to come.
Las Vegas is a world-recognized and wealthy metropolis — it is Nevada’s largest city, by far generating the most revenue for the state. Its residents deserve to have first-rate educational institutions, from K-12 up to the highest institution of learning in this city, UNLV.
Nevada’s leaders need to transcend the myopic and hardened politics of their parties and work together to find a viable solution for Nevada’s future, which must accept the critical importance of support for education. Where there is a will, there is always a way.
Only with an educated populace will we be able to adapt our way out of this current crisis and ensure a viable democracy for generations to come.
Michael Pravica
Las Vegas
The writer is an associate professor of physics at UNLV.
Pursuit of truth
To the editor:
I want to commend defense attorneys Kristina Wildeveld and Norm Reed for their continued work in the case of Victor Fakoya.
For those who have forgotten, Mr. Fakoya was factually innocent of charges of abuse and murder in the death of a 2-year-old boy. After he was found not guilty of the charges in a jury trial, the district attorney refused to let him live with his family unless he admitted to the allegations in a Family Court child protection case.
Because of the efforts of Ms. Wildeveld and Deputy Public Defender Reed, Mr. Fakoya is once again allowed unsupervised visits with his children. There is a pervading societal belief that if someone is charged with a crime, they must be guilty. It’s the public defender and defense bar in general that keeps the system honest. It’s something we all need to keep in mind.
I have the highest respect for law enforcement and prosecutors. But this case is a reminder of the importance of public defenders and defense lawyers in the criminal justice system.
It’s a reminder of how the little guy can get eaten up by the law enforcement-judicial- industrial complex. That system can be like a machine. Once its jaws get a hold of you, it’s hard to break free, even for the innocent.
It isn’t often that the innocent get torn apart by that machine, but it does happen, and it happens more than you think. Sometimes the good guys aren’t so good and the supposed bad buys aren’t so bad. What happened to Mr. Fakoya could happen to anyone.
In the interest of full transparency, it should be noted that I am a criminal defense investigator. Thank you to Ms. Wildeveld and Mr. Reed for their pursuit of the truth on behalf of Mr. Fakoya and all of us.
Al Tobin
Las Vegas
