Letters to the editor 1-22

Workers unfairly asked to balance budget

I fail to understand the rationale behind the governor's apparent refusal to recognize that the state of Nevada has finally reached a point in its history where the state needs to find a consistent source of income. There are people in this state who somehow believe that government services should not be paid for by its very users, the citizens.

It was a wonderful situation when gaming and mining could support Nevada. We relied on others to provide the funding that paid for our public works, health and human services, our justice system and public education. Well, times have changed. Nevada no longer has the corner on gaming. And, then we have our current national economic crisis. Times are tough.

To help alleviate this recession, our governor is not seeking to establish any long-term, permanent solution. Instead, he has chosen to have state workers and teachers pay for the state's debt. He has not asked all the citizens of Nevada to pay the state's expenses (in some places this is called a tax, but heaven forbid Nevada should have a structured, fair tax). No, only some Nevadans will pay. I wonder that if the 6 percent pay cut isn't enough, perhaps we could ask an additional identified group of people to pay, perhaps those with blue eyes or people who watch TV.

State workers and educators are employees. They work for a living, so why should they be fined in order to pay for the state deficit? Doesn't it make more sense, and wouldn't it be better for Nevada, if everyone were invested in the state's economic recovery and paid a little, rather than a small group paying a lot? How about if everyone is fined at, say 2 percent, rather than a small group paying 6 percent? We can call it a citizens' fine. Then we can continue with our head in the sand and use that traditional, rally round the flag slogan, "No New Taxes."

KAREN SCOTT

Carson City

Financial problems all spawned by same cause

The financial problems these days are too numerous to enumerate but they were all spawned by the same real root cause, which is compounding.

Compounded raises in price, wages and benefits have produced unsustainable exponential growth. Compounding is a basic component of our free market system. While great and necessary for savings accounts, it has proven to be disastrous for credit card debt and prices, which in turn promote the need for increased wages and benefits. None of the Band-Aids suggested to date will solve the long-term problem.

The apparent insurmountable financial problems can only be solved by the drastic action of converting our economic system to a linear system. In such a system only percent changes would be made to an unchanging base amount for prices, wages, benefits and government budgets. The stock and bond markets would not have to change. Sens. Ensign and Reid and Rep. Heller were made aware of the linear solution several years ago but have refused to do anything.

DONALD W. CUNNINGHAM

Carson City

Expanded grocery tax could close budget gap

Here we go again " another year, another budget shortfall. Let's spin the wheel and see what will be cut this time.

Of course it will land on education " it always does. The proposed cuts are plain and simply absurd. Soon, to register our cars, we will need to camp overnight in the DMV parking lot so we can get a good spot in line for the one day it is open.

I am a native Nevadan and through the years I have seen many changes in our state. When I graduated from Carson High in the late 1970s the population of Nevada was approximately 800,000. We now stand at about

2.5 million.

Throughout this time we have relied heavily on the gaming and tourism industry as a main revenue source for our state budget. We have always joked about tourists coming here to lose their money so we don't have to pay a state income tax. Times have changed. Since my high school years, the population of Nevada has more than tripled and, with the addition of casinos in other states, Nevada is no longer the prime destination for gaming.

At some point we Nevadans need to come to the realization that we can no longer depend on our casinos to bear the burden of our tax revenue when our population has tripled and their profits have plummeted.

When I was a kid groceries were taxed. This would be a very simple tax to return to. There is already a tax in place for non-food items " just tax all that is purchased. This is a fair and immediate revenue source. This tax could be reduced or eliminated for the low-income with an exemption card which, when swiped, would remove the tax from the grocery bill. Reducing funding for education and the payroll of state workers is only a Band-Aid. Our budget shortfalls will be a continuous crisis until we find a consistently reliable revenue source. A grocery tax is an easy, immediate and reasonable solution.

CAROL HORN

Minden