Letter: Another way to increase education funding

Sunday, Oct. 14, 2007 | 1:29 a.m.

The teachers union is seeking a significant gaming tax hike to support education, meaning of course salary increases but not necessarily better education. More money and better grades are always the goal but resources are scarce and getting worse. We have seen all of the anecdotal evidence before - two working parents, too many students in a classroom, poorly equipped teachers, low salaries and excessive administrative cost. The list goes on and on.

Tax targeting has been the bane of our society for at least a century or more. A little here, a little there and pretty soon it's a lot. You just don't see it. The tax target of the day is gaming. Don't misconstrue this as my support for keeping the gaming industry taxes inordinately low. It's not. Nevada's gaming industry can and probably should pay more, but should we only target education funding? What abut understaffed hospitals and police?

When the Bureau of Land Management was selling land and builders were standing in line to buy like crazed baseball fans for overpriced beer on a hot summer day, where was the teachers union? Over the past six years BLM land sales garnered several billion dollars here in Southern Nevada. These funds were used primarily for parks and trails and not even a whimper from anyone, including the teachers union, about how these funds were spent. If BLM funds had been used primarily for improving education, perhaps Nevadans would have better jobs and could afford more parks and trails without any assistance from the BLM.

Provided raising taxes is the solution, here is a step forward. An average hotel room tax increase here of $3 per day would provide $135 million per year that can be used for education. As hotels add more rooms, revenue also increases. Tourists are not going to complain about $3 per day when a minimum blackjack bet is $5. Unlike the current teachers union tax proposal, this does not require a multi-year constitutional ballot fight, just a little support from our elected officials.

Richard Rychtarik, Las Vegas