Letters

Wheels on the bus

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

Anybody see that brightly painted school bus decked out with solar panels around town last weekend?

My friend Mark Dunagan, who writes for us when he’s not too busy lawyering around at his day job, volunteers for a nonprofit organization called VIDA: Volunteers for International Development and Aid. The volunteers go to impoverished communities around the world and help construct basic infrastructure things, like sewer systems and the like. A bunch of the folks involved, including the director, David Levine, are either from Reno or have local ties.

The organization’s current project is called Solarize Ghana. Basically, they took this old school bus, painted a big, happy mural on it, and equipped it with everything needed to build solar panels. They’re going to drive the bus, now called the SolBus, across the U.S. and then ship it from New York to Africa. Then, they’re going to trek around Ghana, building solar panels and bringing electric power to villages that have never had it before.

But first, they drove it around Reno all last weekend, showing it off at places like the farmers’ markets and the Nevada Discovery Museum during the day, and at Craft Beer & Wine, Reno Public House and St. James Infirmary at night.

I imagine a lot of locals saw the brightly colored bus and expected them to be selling burgers or burritos out of the thing. But I bet everyone who actually checked it out was as impressed as I was when I got to scope it out on Saturday night. The bus itself is partly solar-powered, which is neat. It’s a cool cause and an enthusiastic group of people. They’re still raising funds for the project. You can learn more at www.thevida.org.

And don’t forget to vote in our Biggest Little Best of Northern Nevada readers’ poll: www.newsreview.com/ reno/ballot/bestofreno13. —Brad Bynum bradb@newsreview.com

Rate note

Re: “Crappy Tax System” (Cover story, RN&R, May 23):

Dennis Myers missed a point. He forgot to mention the fact that the casinos lobbied for and received a lower tax rate than the residents of Nevada. The residents always paid a lower tax rate than casinos; the visitors paid to come here and the casinos passed that extra tax onto the state. Now, the casinos pay a lower tax rate than citizens. Glenna Heinz Reno

Club note

Every week for over a year, your graph of what’s happening in “Nightclubs” has continually ignored information about Jub Jub’s Thirst Parlor. Except (for some reason) the ‘Open Mic’ on Mondays. I have asked the owners about this and they claim that they have sent the weekly information dutifully. To make matters worse, they have paid for advertising of upcoming shows, and still nothing in the graph. I have also been told that the owners have inquired about this situation several times. There is a great show this Friday—Sit Kitty Sit from San Francisco. May I ask why Jub Jub’s is not put into the graph? Rodney Hurst Reno

Editor’s note: That information wasn’t uploaded to our website. We build our newsprint nightclub grid from events that have been posted to our website by promoters, venue owners or performers. It’s free to register and list events, which can be done here: www.news review.com/reno. For more information, contact Kelley Lang, our calendar editor, at kelleyl@newsreview.com.

Welfare note

Re “Lights! Camera! Tax breaks!” (Liberty Belle, RN&R, June 6):

I agree with “Anonymous” as to the net return to the states that give tax breaks to movie studios. Many states long ago took to granting tax breaks to many out of state businesses in order to lure those businesses into their states and municipalities. Frankly, this is one of the worst incentives ever dreamt up by politicians.

Usually corporations make lots of promises that seldom come to pass. Instead, they scale back their investments once the tax incentives are created on their behalf. It would surely be better if all states agreed to get rid of these so called tax incentives and dealt with businesses on an even playing field. There are many ways that states and cities could compete with each other in different ways. Education of the workforce, competitive wages not influenced by union scales that usually increase the cost of labor without the labor force actually benefiting. States like Texas, Florida and our own Nevada don’t have state income taxes which makes it a better location for the work force and for the business.

To continue the destructive cycle of offering tax breaks when the existing local business base doesn’t get the same breaks is a loss to all the taxpayers in the state. Let’s create a fair tax base that all businesses pay and grow an honest economy.

Fred Speckmann Reno

Regulatory note 1

Re “Take back your health care” (Liberty Bell, RN&R, May 30):

Ms. Bessette assumes the deregulation of health care will cure our health care ills as they relate to cost and government regulation. After owning my own company and retiring, I have been employed in the health care industry (both “profit” and “non-profit”), in positions ranging from bedside care to managing large clinics, multi-hospital acquisition(s), and have some decidedly different views on government regulation.

If Ms. Bessette should need health care for an emergent or non-emergent issue, I hope she has the knowledge and perseverance to “shop” the available markets in her area, and that the hospital, doctor, nurse, lab tech, pharmacist, EMT, diagnostic tech, pharmaceutical and medical equipment suppliers are committed to the marketed capitalist credo of “The best product (education, ability, ethics) at the lowest cost.” In fact, my experiences in health care has led me to believe, that like all industries, without some level of government regulation, health care would slide into the abyss of health care provision akin to undeveloped countries around the world.

With enough personal fortune you can afford “real” health care; for those who cannot, Godspeed. An example of “government regulation” that Ms. Bessette most likely enjoys, perhaps without her knowledge, is that of the automobile. Each manufacturer has to meet government regulations related to minimum safety standards of crashworthiness, pollution controls, and vehicular dynamics. After these minimums have been met, then let the competition begin. Car companies seem overall to be thriving and their shareholders are relatively happy. The antithesis of this is the deregulation and oversight of the financial markets, (e.g., S&L crash of the ’80s, the derivative market, predatory mortgages, and banks too big to fail). The capitalist creed Ms. Bessette should acknowledge is not that “Businesses thrive on competition.” Rather, “It wants monopolies.” My apologies for misquoting a great Republican “Teddy” Roosevelt –Trust Buster, creator of National Parks, government regulation of the food and drug industry, and ending of child labor, among other government interventions.

Michael Troiano Reno

Regulatory note 2

Re “Take back your health care” (Liberty Bell, RN&R, May 30):

Chanelle Bessette’s article is a mixture of flawed logic, naiveté and ignorance/denial of recent history. The biggest issue with her article is her confusion about corporate behavior after massive deregulation.

Instead of federal regulation and certification, in the case of health care and pharmaceutical companies, she proposes “private companies that offer voluntary accredidation.” Follow to the end of the paragraph where “pharmaceutical … manufacturers would increase in quality and more businesses would offer guarantees.”

Here’s a simplified version of the subprime lending crisis, a key dcomponent to the Economic Collapse of 2007. Wall Street players were pushing mortgage bundles, financial assets comprised of hundreds to thousands of mortgages, priced at a fraction of the hypothetical value of repaid loans. The demand for these products grew at a very fast rate due to the volume of purchasing by big banks and brokers. With increased demand, mortgage lenders had great incentive to offer massive loans to unqualified buyers with little to no collateral. After all, with enough mortgages, they could be packaged off and sold to someone else. Mortgage lenders could offer loans to buyers that had virtually no chance to pay them off because they could sell off the risk before the note came due.

Surely, the rating agencies would spot these high-risk loans and raise red flags. Instead, the rating agencies saw their profits rise with a higher volume of AAA bundles, despite the true value of the bundles. These profits came in over- and under-the-table payments and incentives to rating agencies so Wall Street investment banks could “take control of how they are perceived by the public.” Instead of acting “with greater transparency about their method of production,” they touted their financial products as high-quality investments, clearly which they were not. The creed of corporations like global investment banks and pharmaceutical companies is simple—maximize profits. No corporation willingly spends more money to make less, even in the name of higher quality.

Daniel Sotelo Reno

Correction

Re “Constitutional amendment on ballot” (RN&R, May 30):

In an article on repealing a cap on mining taxes in the Nevada Constitution, we reported, “The only senators representing Washoe County who voted against passage were Don Gustavson and James Settlemeyer.” Actually, Settlemeyer represents four small counties. Gustavson’s was the only Washoe Senate vote cast against the measure.

Our Mission To publish great newspapers that are successful and enduring. To create a quality work environment that encourages people to grow professionally while respecting personal welfare. To have a positive impact on our communities and make them better places to live. Editor/Publisher D. Brian Burghart News Editor Dennis Myers Arts Editor Brad Bynum Calendar Editor Kelley Lang Editorial Intern Sage Leehey Contributors Amy Alkon, Chanelle Bessette, Megan Berner, Matthew Craggs, Mark Dunagan, Marvin Gonzalez, Bob Grimm, Michael Grimm, Sheila Leslie, Dave Preston, Jessica Santina, K.J. Sullivan, Kris Vagner, Bruce Van Dyke, Allison Young Creative Director Priscilla Garcia Art Director Hayley Doshay Design Melissa Arendt, Brian Breneman, Vivian Liu, Marianne Mancina, Skyler Smith Advertising Consultants Meg Brown, Gina Odegard, Matt Odegard, Bev Savage Senior Classified Advertising Consultant Olla Ubay Office/Distribution Manager/ Ad Coordinator Karen Brooke Executive Assistant/Operations Coordinator Nanette Harker Assistant Distribution Manager Ron Neill Distribution Drivers Sandra Chhina, Sean Karp, John Miller, Jesse Pike, David Richards, Martin Troye, Warren Tucker, Matthew Veach, Sam White General Manager/Publisher John D. Murphy President/CEO Jeff vonKaenel Chief Operations Officer Deborah Redmond Human Resource Manager Tanja Poley Business Manager Grant Ronsenquist Business Mary Anderson, Tami Sandoval Systems Manager Jonathan Schultz Systems Support Specialist Joe Kakacek Web Developer/Support Specialist John Bisignano 708 North Center Street Reno, NV 89501 Phone (775) 324-4440 Fax (775) 324-4572 Classified Fax (916) 498-7940 Mail Classifieds & Talking Personals to N&R Classifieds, Reno Edition, 1015 20th Street, Sacramento, CA 95814 or e-mail classifieds@ newsreview.com Web site www.newsreview.com Printed by Paradise Post The RN&R is printed using recycled newsprint whenever available. Editorial Policies Opinions expressed in the RN&R are those of the authors and not of Chico Community Publishing, Inc. Contact the editor for permission to reprint articles, cartoons or other portions of the paper. The RN&R is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts. All letters received become the property of the publisher. We reserve the right to print letters in condensed form.

This MOdeRn WORld by tom tomorrow

Sandoval blows it Give the legislature a grade

The Nevada Appeal has run a SLOP survey, one of those news site polls that has an inherently flawed selfselected sample and lets readers click a yes or no answer on the question of the day or week. The question was, “Do you approve of the job the Legislature did this session?” The result: 79.93 percent voted No and 20.07 percent voted Yes. We assume that so many people have a built-in dislike of legislatures that in 2013 a favorable vote is no longer possible, because this was one of the better legislatures of recent years.

The legislators worked hard, worked together and worked well. Yes, they worked long—more than the 120 day limit—but that says more about the idiotic limit than about the legislators. Since that limit was imposed by the voters in 1988, there has never been a 120-day legislature. The legislators always start meeting on the budget two weeks before the actual legislative sessions began, and they have usually continued into special session when the 120 days ran out. So those four month sessions have usually been closer to five month sessions, and the state is better for it.

Much less deserving of praise than the legislators is Gov. Brian Sandoval. He has not figured out how to work with the lawmakers. Most governors veto few bills. It’s the mark of legislative-savvy governors. And most governors are restrained in their use of the veto. Weak or indolent governors like Jim Gibbons act otherwise, and end up racking up large numbers of vetoes.

Sandoval has wielded the veto freely, which raises the question of how he spends his time during legislatures. It also borders on abuse of the veto. It’s essentially an anti-democratic instrument, which is why most governors are cautious in its use. Sandoval had every chance to make his case to the legislators on the dozens of bills he has vetoed as governor. No new information came to light between enactment of those bills and his veto, nor were their urgent circumstances. So why is he in the Gibbons category?

In one veto message, Sandoval stopped ward elections in favor of more expensive city-wide elections in several Nevada cities, including Reno and Sparks, by citing a non-binding straw vote on the issue in last year’s election. The governor knew perfectly well that the mayor and city council tampered with that ballot item by manipulating the language to guarantee the outcome. Those cities now face action by the U.S. Justice Department under the Voting Rights Act.

Sandoval also called the legislators into an entirely unnecessary special session. None of the four measures he called them back to deal with were essential, not even a bill providing for more police in Clark County. If it was such an urgent measure, the lawmakers would have passed it months ago on their own taxing authority. Instead they dithered while trying to figure out how to dump the problem on local government. And why did they have to use such machinations? Because the governor painted them, the public, and the state into a corner with his no-taxes demand. The special session was his fault.

The legislators were not flawless in their performance. They were far too responsive to corporate lobbyists and too indifferent to workers. But with the governor for comparison, the legislators came out looking very good. Ω

Asked at Nevada Women’s Lobby luncheon

Ginnie Kersey

Retiree B-plus. They seemed to go through it in a very orderly manner. They seemed to be working with each other, which was a very nice thing to see for an elected body. I happened to go down there one day … and it really was quite an enlightening thing to see them actually talking and working together.

Wendy Boszak

Office administrator I would give it a C because they have not solved the educational finance issue. … I really think that we need to work harder toward a permanent solution. The teachers took the initiative because they wanted to be sure something would come before the voters. And since the legislature chose not to react on that, it leaves the margins taxes coming before voters.

Lori Wray

Office administrator I’d give them a B, and that’s a high grade for me. They passed a couple of things I was in favor of. ... I was able to go to a legislative hearing, and it was my first sort of foray. Usually I just read the newspaper. I was saddened by the way they vote on things. They don’t know what they’re voting for. They vote for political reasons—“I’ll vote for this if you vote for that.” I kind of got that feeling.

Sue Smith

Real estate broker I would give them a B. It seems like they got a lot of business that they needed to get done without a lot of rancorous fighting. But I just wish that they would change the tax system in this state, and that’s kind of a hard thing to take up, but I think somebody’s got to do it and until they do I don’t think I can give them an A.

Sandy Young

Massage therapist I would give them a C because a lot of the issues that I’m involved in, they did not pass [like] sex education, GMO labeling.