Las Vegas Sun

December 4, 2009

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Letter: Lawmakers are done, but not the lobbyists

Tuesday, July 24, 2007 | 7:25 a.m.

Jon Ralston's column in the July 18 Las Vegas Sun, on "why lobbyists manage to get their way over and over and over again with state government," certainly highlights what happens in Carson City once the cats have gone away to leave the mice to play for another year and a half.

Ralston outlines how the 2005 and 2007 state Legislatures enacted environmentally friendly "green" tax relief legislation for commercial building construction and then attempted to close huge loopholes that had allowed corporations to rape and pillage Nevada's treasury. Now the loopholes that were thought to have been closed are once again being reopened by clever lobbyists and some not-so-smart state bureaucrats.

"Green" certainly comes in many forms. Doesn't it seem obscene that our state government would continue to offer huge tax breaks to developers who would, by the vary nature of their project's construction, reap extraordinary financial benefits anyway? I wonder if the Las Vegas Boulevard's green cabal will also be eligible for federal and local utility energy subsidies?

Maybe it's time our cats in the Legislature stayed on the job full time, otherwise the mice just might get all the cheese and Nevada's taxpayers will only get the shaft.

Richard Rychtarik, Las Vegas

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