How about registration taxes on bicyclists?

To the editor:

While driving to work recently, my traffic lane was impeded by one of the thousands of mini-scooters in our city.

While cruising along at 10 to 15 miles an hour below the speed limit, I had time to reflect on the recent announcement that I needed to register my Off Highway Vehicle with the state by July 2013. I need to obtain a title and pay a $20 annual fee for a vehicle that is not designed for and not allowed on paved roads.

Yet our streets are crowded with thousands of these mini-scooters, which are using the streets. In fact, there are dozens of businesses renting these scooters to tourists, yet the scooters are not required to be registered.

If the state of Nevada is in such bad need of revenue, how about this: If you use the streets, you need to pay your fair share. I suggest that this may apply to bicycles as well. We use taxpayer funds to create bike lanes, yet these folks pay no fuel taxes or other registration fees.

If I have to pay annual registration fees for a vehicle that does not use the streets, I would expect those who use the streets should pay.

AL CONANT

LAS VEGAS

Savings bonds

To the editor:

I am 74 years old. My wife is 72. For years we have given U.S. saving bonds to our grandchildren at Christmas. This year that tradition ends.

Our government, in its infinite wisdom, has killed the traditional U.S. saving bond program. Apparently it is easier to borrow money from China than have our citizens invest in the United States of America.

Sad. Very Sad.

Jack Krueger

LAS VEGAS

Filibustering

To the editor:

Steve Sebelius’ Nov. 27 column on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s attempt to reform the filibuster was very one-sided. When the Republicans attempted to reform the filibuster during the Bush administration, the Democrats howled about a power grab. The list of howlers included Sen. Reid.

At the time, Republicans just wanted up-or-down votes on Bush judicial nominations. The Democrats started to filibuster judicial nominations to prevent conservatives from being appointed. Appointments had never been filibustered before.

For Mr. Sebelius to say that Sen. Reid just wants to help America move forward is ridiculous. He just wants total power within the Senate so he can pass his socialist wish list. It would be nice if Mr. Sebelius gave the full story instead of serving as a propagandist for the Democrat Party.

ALAN GALINS

LAS VEGAS

Mortgage industry

To the editor:

After all these years, the media simply do not understand how the mortgage industry works in many respects (“Clark County foreclosures rise sharply in October,” Nov. 14 Review-Journal.)

The statement that a loan has been “sold two or three times” fundamentally misapprehends how the securitization (mortgage) industry functions. Of all of the loans written since 2004, more than 99 percent are sold once, and only once. In fact, if the loans are not sold and transferred into the real estate mortgage investment conduit or bankruptcy remote vehicle within 90 days, the tax advantages are lost. That initial transfer from the lender – usually a mouse-house that is now in bankruptcy – to the depositary institution acting on behalf of the conduit, is the only time a loan is sold, ever.

What does change hands is the servicing of the loan. Loan servicing rights under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act are very valuable, and in the case of the recent GMAC bankruptcy, were virtually the only assets the company had. (It was Residential Capital, a wholly owned subsidiary, that actually filed Chapter 11.)

It is because of this added complexity in the process of mortgage lending that the foreclosure laws are so hard to navigate, and indeed, to understand. The drafters of AB149 back in the 2009 Nevada Legislature missed the point, as well. If they had understood it, they would not have set it up so that the servicers (banks) could game the system so easily. AB284 was also somewhat misconceived, because it requires documentation of all the Mortgage Electronic Registration System transactions, though none of them are the kind of transfer that the law and common sense would envision. I know that this explanation does not lend itself well to the sound bites of modern journalism, but in some cases, detail and exactitude are required.

Geoffrey Giles

Reno

The Republican brain

To the editor:

Contrary to what Jerry Patchman has to say (Nov. 23 letter to the editor), not all of higher education is progressive propaganda. There is actually a fairly large segment of higher education that deals with the physical world as it is, not as people want it to be. These academics are called scientists.

Scientists think differently than most people, especially most Republicans. Among scientists, Democrats outnumber Republicans by 9 to 1, 55 percent to a mere 6 percent. I would say that this indicates a serious problem with how Republican brains work.

Despite all their blather about freedom, actual measurements indicate that most Republicans, in addition to being against the actual physical world, are not open to new ideas, hate to change their minds and have strong tendencies to be obedient to authority – all the things that they complain about.

Doug Nusbaum

LAS VEGAS