Letter: Rural North has too much control

Friday, July 25, 2003 | 9:19 a.m.

The deadlocked 2003 Legislature demonstrated the stupidity of the two-thirds bargain, which was approved by voters as a constitutional amendment in 1994 and 1996. The requirement permits rural legislators to block funding of necessary services and infrastructure to continue building the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the country.We won't be the biggest metro area much longer. The fiscal drought will kill us before the no-water drought.

If Las Vegas wants to tie its hands to a two-thirds vote, we should secede from Northern Nevada at the same time -- the north doesn't need new services from the state. Here in the south, we don't need our schools and kids' futures hogtied like cattle by cowboy politicians.

JAMES RICHARD LUCAS

Customers pay taxes on business

Legislators must get this simple fact into their heads before the next session: Businesses do not pay taxes, their customers do.

All business expenses -- payroll, rent, insurance, utilities and other costs including taxes, fees and licenses -- are passed on to customers.

When legislators propose a business tax they are actually taxing the state's citizens. A broad-based business tax or a payroll tax or any license fee is nothing more than a personal income tax.

Let's make legislators propose and pass taxes that show what the cost is to citizens and their families.

CHRIS BENDER Reno