Why don’t we have a lottery yet?
To the editor:
Tough times here in Nevada, eh? Well, in Thursday’s letters to the editor, Joe Schaerer is right on the money when he asks, “What about a lottery?”
It is no secret the state is in dire straits, and Gov. Brian Sandoval offered some painful cuts in his address. In truth, talking tough and being tough are two different things. It is time to get tough with the bullies — the gaming industry.
How much money is lost in Las Vegas to Macau? Both Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts took the millions and millions made here and not only dumped it in the Far East, but discouraged a lot of high-end gamblers from coming here. Recently, the Powerball lottery went to $390 million, and I know a lot of people who went to California for a chance at it. One couple in particular spent three days traveling and buying tickets in various places. They spent more than $1,000 on lodging, food, fuel and, of course, tickets.
A lottery would not only bring in much-needed money but also create jobs.
William Dwyer
Las Vegas
Three-fifths
To the editor:
In his otherwise excellent Wednesday letter, Robert Gardner does make one mistake. He repeats the old fallacy about the Constitution being racist, suggesting that Article I, Section 2 says, “blacks are … considered three-fifths of a person.”
Not true.
That section is about counting population to determine how many representatives we get in government, which is why we have the census. That count was to enumerate “free persons” and “three-fifths of all other persons,” meaning slaves. Free blacks were counted as a whole.
The language isn’t meant to determine someone’s worth as a human being, but merely to reduce the total count. The strength of a state’s presence in government was determined by this count. Northern states didn’t want slaves counted at all; Southern states wanted them counted as a whole. The point of the three-fifths compromise was to reduce the South’s power.
Ironically, for those who see this part of the Constitution as racist, this rule did what it was supposed to do: It contributed to the eventual end of slavery. With Black History Month right around the corner, it’s important to set the record straight.
Jamie Huston
North Las Vegas
Their best
To the editor:
The governor wants to create a commission on job creation? That should be easy.
Our children deserve the best education available. Just fund quality education for all children in the state. That means keeping the teachers we now have and demanding excellence from the schools.
By the way, an industry can control its raw material. Education cannot. Merit pay based on performance when a teacher has no choice over her “raw material” is severely flawed. But rewarding an entire school that sets and achieves across-the-board goals for student achievement is definitely worth looking at.
I am speaking as an educator who moved here from another state. I have substituted in the schools. The teachers are doing their best with what they have. The people of this state must demand the best for their children.
Christine Merriam
Henderson
Tax policy
To the editor:
Knight Allen’s Wednesday commentary illustrates a serious dilemma that we as taxpayers face with regard to state property taxes. The average homeowner (an oxymoron, if you will) at this point in time pays $200 per month in property taxes. If this is looked at by politicians as a means to funding the smorgasbord of government programs, then we are doomed.
I read of an elderly couple in New Jersey, a retired schoolteacher and a retired postal worker, who lived in the same house for 40 years. Their mortgage payment was $246 per month. They had planned to stay in their modest home for the rest of their time here on earth.
That was until the politicians in the state continued raising the property taxes to a completely unsustainable figure of more than $900 per month, which ultimately forced this couple to sell the home that they worked a lifetime to pay off.
This is a tragedy that should never happen in America and begs the question: Do we really own our homes? It would seem, based on this couple’s story, that we are nothing but a piggy bank for the state to raid whenever it finds its coffers short of cash.
The solution to the current housing crisis seems clear to me. Eliminating taxes on land and home ownership would create a tsunami of activity in any state that tried it.
Years ago, courageous people fled the regime of the tyrant King George for the right to own land. The king would be pleased to know that his ilk have foisted upon us a tax so onerous and evil that it threatens the very freedoms that those who came before us gave their lives for.
Mike Bryant
Las Vegas
Ill-informed
To the editor:
In response to Ed Vogel’s Thursday story, “Oceguera says budget burden not ‘broad-based’:
Assembly Speaker John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, states that businesses and all Nevada citizens are supposed to share the budget pain with school employees and state employees. I want to know how such an ill-informed man can rise to this position without any understanding of what is going on in Nevada.
The pain started with the citizens of Nevada. First with the jobs lost and then with the homes lost to foreclosures, followed shortly by the businesses that have lost everything and gone under. Meanwhile, many more struggle to stay afloat. The pain has been felt by every Nevada resident and taxpayer. We now want to share our pain with those who work for us and are still employed while we have 14.5 percent unemployment.
We want public-sector workers to sacrifice some of their bloated salaries and benefits secured by the unions. We want a say in their pay and benefits. Teachers and state employees pay little to nothing for their benefits while everyone else is losing theirs.
Claudette Dorian
Las Vegas
