Letter: Opposition to tax increase is broad

Thursday, Nov. 20, 2003 | 9:01 a.m.

Your Nov. 16 editorial asks, "So where is all this 'fat' in budgets?" For starters, it could be the group of assistants, led by Clark County School District Superintendent Carlos Garcia, who led Nevada's K-12 schools to outscore just two states -- Mississippi and New Mexico -- and the District of Columbia in national test scores for reading and math.

It is also disingenuous to suggest, as your editorial did, that only "ultraconservatives rallied against Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn's proposal to raise taxes." This statement makes two assumptions: That Kenny Guinn is anything but a RINO (Republican in name only) and that only "ultraconservatives" oppose higher taxes.

Finally, the 1990s were not a time when elected officials let down the public because of fear of the political consequences. Your editorial conveniently overlooked the sales-tax increase of 1998 passed by the Clark County Commission.

Perhaps with our state sales tax of 7.5 percent and a Legislature packed with "citizen legislators" who also are public employees, the state can really be renamed East California in the next session after all.

DAVID PALAY