LETTERS: How about a stadium, built with lottery proceeds?

Las Vegas Sands Corp. wants to build a stadium and have public funding cover two-thirds of the cost. The public does not want to raise taxes to pay for something that private companies should pay for themselves. The public (or at least 70 percent) wants to have a state lottery, but private companies — most notably the casino industry — do not want the public to have a lottery. It’s bad for business.

So how about a deal: I’m sure the public would be willing to pay for part of the stadium, as long as that money comes from state lottery proceeds. It’s a win-win situation. The casino industry benefits from a state-of-the-art stadium it has been clamoring about for years, and Nevada citizens get a state lottery that they have been clamoring about for years.

I know conventional wisdom is to justify a lottery by using proceeds to fund education. But time and again, state legislators have used this ploy to bait-and-switch the money for other general fund expenditures. This will keep state legislators honest, since there is no general fund line item to steal from.

If Sheldon Adelson wants the public to back the funding model for the Sands’ stadium proposal, then he and his fellow casino owners should support a state lottery. It’s the best deal they’re going to get.

Richard Pratt

Las Vegas

Endorsing Rubio

Letters to the editor critical of the Review-Journal’s endorsement of Marco Rubio (“For the Republican caucus,” Feb. 7) fail to acknowledge that the senator from Florida possesses the most relevant experience in the entire GOP presidential field. As a member of both the Senate Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees, Sen. Rubio is the candidate most knowledgeable and best equipped to deal with national security and defense issues, including the rising threat of ISIS and domestic terrorism.

The RJ editorial also underscored Sen. Rubio’s personal connection with Nevada, having lived in the Las Vegas Valley from age 8 to 14. He has also demonstrated respect for those of us in rural Nevada by making campaign visits to Fallon and Yerington.

Sen. Rubio is a limited-government conservative, the candidate most able to unite Republicans, win in Nevada and defeat Hillary Clinton in November.

Jim Hartman

Genoa

Democratic candidates

I watched the latest Democratic presidential candidate debate and was amazed at the choices being given to American voters. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ giveaway programs have been estimated to cost $18 trillion over 10 years. That works out to $1.8 trillion per year. He plans to get that money from Wall Street and all of the very rich.

Let’s assume that all of the billionaires in this country are worth $20 billion (though they aren’t). If Sen. Sanders took all of that money, it would take 90 such people to pay for one year of his programs. What would he do for the next year? The problem with socialists of any kind is that they are not very good at simple math.

Then there is Hillary Clinton, a woman lacking ethics, principles and honesty, though she at least has it right when she says the U.S. cannot pay for all of Sen. Sanders’ programs.

Both these Democrats constantly complain about the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which allows corporations and individuals to give large amounts of money to political action committees to support candidates for office. The Democrats say this allows wealthy individuals and corporations to unfairly influence elections. This claim is hypocritical to the extreme, because Democrats never mention that labor unions have been giving hundreds of millions of dollars for many years to political candidates, almost all Democrats.

If either Mrs. Clinton or Sen. Sanders get elected president, we can say goodbye to the United States of America.

Walter F. Wegst

Las Vegas

Solar grandfathering

Regarding the article on the Public Utilities Commission’s latest net metering decision (“Customer to receive phased-in rate hikes,” Saturday Review-Journal), let me see if I understand this. NV Energy wants pre-existing solar customers to be grandfathered in to the previous, more favorable rates. Gov. Brian Sandoval is greatly disappointed that the PUC did not grandfather those customers in. And obviously solar customers want to be grandfathered in. Yet the PUC ruled otherwise.

Let’s be honest: If the two most powerful men in Nevada — Gov. Sandoval and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett — really wanted pre-existing solar customers to be grandfathered in, they would have found a way to do so. It’s just another example of Wall Street and a politician forming an alliance to harm the little guy.

Larry Acker

Las Vegas