Letter: High taxes will chase many away from Las Vegas

Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2003 | 10:28 a.m.

Gov. Kenny Guinn, a former superintendent of schools, has proposed a budget that requires Nevada's taxpayers to provide an additional $1,000 from every man, woman and child in our state. The largest portion of the budget increase will end up in the bottomless pit of the teachers union and its endless demand for more money.

The teachers union would have us believe that classes should be smaller, which would require more teachers, all of whom would pay dues to the union. It also refuses to consider merit-based compensation, where the best teachers would be paid more and bad teachers would earn less. Its position is to keep the worst teacher in Nevada employed at the highest level possible based on education and years of service within the system. We do not need a larger pie; the education administration just needs to develop a system to allocate the size of the pieces appropriately.

I am a retiree who moved to Nevada from a high-tax state to take advantage of Nevada's favorable tax environment, and I can leave by the same road that brought me here. My pension is certainly not as generous as those of Nevada teachers and other public employees. My wife and I require almost no public services; we live in a gated community where we pay for our own street repairs and cleaning, street lighting, private security, landscaping maintenance and irrigation, and we get no tax breaks. We pay our own medical bills and transportation costs, but we are still taxed to support those services for others.

Higher taxes will eventually chase away the geese that lay the golden eggs!

DON MC DONALD