Las Vegas Sun

November 24, 2009

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Letter: More development would worsen problems

Wednesday, March 7, 2007 | 7:13 a.m.

The Las Vegas Sun's March 6 article, "Land for development is in short supply," exposes new Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons to the charge that he is blind, deaf and dumb when it comes to development. He wants still more federal land sold to developers in the Las Vegas Valley.

There is nothing in the article that even hints that he understands that water might be relevant to development. Perhaps the increase in taxes for more schools, sewers, roads, police, fire, etc., might be ignored so developers can keep making millions. But the reality is that we do not have enough water for our current available development.

At least Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., seems to understand that not releasing more federal land makes sense. By the way, while it may not be a bad thing for real estate prices to soar, the better guess is that increases in property taxes will avoid that dreadful threat.

In an effort to understand why Gibbons would come up with this dumb idea, one can only wonder if he needs political contributions from developers to make up for what he has lost by no longer being able to make earmarks in the Pentagon's "black budget" to benefit his friends living on the federal defense budget.

Douglas F. Thornsjo, Henderson

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