Letter: Time to take state back from special interests

Monday, Oct. 22, 2007 | 7:14 a.m.

The problem with the Nevada Legislature is that it is owned by the special interests of gaming and mining. We need to have a new look at campaign finance in this state and a law with teeth that gives the state back to the people of Nevada and takes it away from the gaming and mining corporations.

Brian Greenspun and the Las Vegas Sun are to be commended on the Oct. 14 article with Jan Jones, Jim Rogers, Bill Uffelman and Lynn Warne and their conversation about tax policy.

It is beyond my understanding that Nevadans don't want a gross receipts tax, yet we let the Review-Journal, Wal-Mart, Kroger, Federated Department Stores, television and other communication companies take our money out of this state and send it everywhere but here, completely untaxed. They use our roads, our hospitals and every other service required to run a business and employ people and don't have to pay a dime in corporate taxes to the state of Nevada to maintain its infrastructure.

What can we do to get Gov. Jim Gibbons off his duff and call a special session of the Legislature, a move recommended by Mr. Greenspun in his Sunday Where I Stand column, to fix our financial woes in this state? I would even call Jim Gibbons a hero if he has the guts to call a special session of the Legislature and to sign into law some of the much needed tax reforms.

Denise Kelley, Las Vegas

The writer is president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees' Retiree Subchapter 153. The views expressed are her own.