I say create a Volunteer Fire department that covers the sick and any overtime. These can be new recruits and help the department find the most worthy.

That way all firemen make their salary and no overtime and we keep fully trained people on staff. If the oldest don't like not being able to make OT they can retire early saving on them maxing out their pension which then saves the city. New replacement paid staff comes in with lower base salaries and benefits.

Their is a wait list of people wanting to become fireman, we should be able to fill the volunteer relief department and give them equipment and training in the money saved from not paying out overtime.

While I agree about diversifying the economy we can't lose site that mining is paying very little compared to what they pay else where. Australia is going to be doing a 33% tax on minerals.

Gold is here and we are the third largest producer of gold in the world. Gold is not everywhere, they can't just move so we might as well use their industry to help educate and diversify the state for when mining has stripped the state bare and is gone for ever.

It made an operating profit of $5million.

express445 you have it wrong. It needs to make an operating profit of $34million to pay its debt and it only made an operating profit of $5million.

The truth is this actually makes a profit based on its operating costs minus debt load. That is more then what can be said for RTC and 99.9% of all other government ran mass transit systems in this country. When the government does mass transit they never look at paying debt back through operating profit of the transit system. Many transit systems operating costs are subsidized and don't make a profit.

Why say so many bad things when it does more then most mass transit systems do. If an insurer insured against the bonds going into default why do they get to go to court and sue? Insurance is a gamble and in this case they lost.

$5 million in net cash flow if judged as a public transportation would be hailed as a success. Rare that a public transit system is built in anticipation of paying its build costs back. Most run with government aid for daily operation expenses. In this case their daily operations and future operational expenses including repairs and replacement would be covered by their revenue.

Let it live debt free to do what it is doing. Actually a decent job carrying passengers and reducing traffic especially around the convention center.

I am not a fan of someone that takes the opportunity to blame the wrong person. Future in this case you are worse then the politicians. Get your facts straight and I don't know who I am going to vote for, but I am going to vote based on the facts.

Harry Reid is in charge of the senate and the senate bill had the appropriations going to the county. It was the house bill that did not. Committee to combine is often ran by the respective house and senate committees that sent the bills to the floor. I don't know if Harry Reid or John Ensign were part of those.

The fact is the house, our congressman, and not the senators are to blame for this one including Dean Heller as they voted for a version of the bill from the beginning that did not have the appropriations.

If you going to smash someone for their voting record or leadership then fully understand how things work first.

FUTURE, think before you write.

Net cash flow for a transit system still makes it more successful then RTC who requires tax dollars through local and federal resources for not just capital but to cover daily operation costs as well.

For that reason the LV Monorail should be rescued in some formation and continue running along with plans to expand.

CJ has a good start.

(1) I have been saying for years that mining needs to be taxed their fair share by eliminating the write offs. Gaming does not get to write off their expense to bring in the winnings and why should mining, especially when gold is so high. Where will the mining companies go? gold is here...

(2) a small pay cut to state employees exempting teachers. Why you ask, because teachers in this state are still below the national average while the majority of other state employees are above average. This can be done in reducing benefits and not actual pay cuts, but pay freezes for many years to come would be smart. We can talk later about merit pay for teachers as I believe that needs to be implemented instead of union bargin agreements.

(3) Capital road projects and other items need to be re evaluated and spent where it is needed. Better priority needs to be set based on congestion. A small increase in fuel tax is not a bad idea as sitting in traffic will cost you more then a few pennies a gallon at the pump.

(4) Then in the future we need to look at taxes across the board. Low to no taxes on business won't bring new business to Nevada alone. We need a better education system, transportation network and more. This does not come free, but we can do it with a new tax structure that is still low burden compared to other states and make it that much better for all.

(5) Local governments need to look at their employee programs and figure how to better save. Invest wisely today while costs are down to save tomorrow. This includes new energy efficiencies, reduction in water costs through smart landscaping and more. Change employee programs and hire where needed to reduce severe overtime. If the local governments finances are in order and given better control of their tax collections everyones budgets will be easier to balance.

I have never heard of a HOA and management splitting fine money income.

Also I have seen associations fine people and people never pay until the house is sold which the payment is then done through title.

Many HOA's don't spend money to enter and fix as they don't have the capital to do so as so many people are not paying their dues. When they collect the fines often that helps cover bad debt due to lack of payment in association dues.

My association does put any collected fine money that creates a surplus back into the community through capital improvements. It is difficult to manage the small home projects and as an older community there is plenty of capital beautification covering entire street fronts that can take place with this surplus money and not need to add a special assessment.

If the house was properly maintained and dues would be paid this would not be an issue.

Many of the homeowners maintaining their house, paying their dues are getting their property value driven down by these homes not maintained.

Then as they refuse to pay the dues and more money goes to bad debt HOA's are forced to increase dues to the people that are paying just to maintain what they are offering and maintaining. Lack of maintenance on a property short term could mean reduction in property value and increase in long term costs so cutting today for todays situation could cost everyone long term.

If you are making thousands in flipping then pay or make the banks pay. Don't try to get out of your responsibility so you can line your pockets with more money through your flipping program.

I have seen so many investors do the minimal, pull the dead grass out and put rock down with no plant life. They did not add any curb appeal or value, and they did not get permission so when the new owner buys the home they are now stuck with properly landscaping to the neighborhood standards.

How fair is that?

Everyone commenting is missing one thing. As a public transit system this would of hailed as a great success as it covers its operating expenses and some.

RTC runs at a loss and every project to expand it is paid by tax dollars. If the monorail was paid by tax dollars we would hear how it is making money to help pay back to the RTC or other entity that it is running.

This line on a per mile basis carries more people then the San Diego light rail.

The only reason why people see this as a failure because we forced someone to do it privately instead of getting our Federal dollars to do it publically like many other cities have.