Letters to the editor

Some sage advice for saving tax dollars

I work for the State of Nevada and I have a few suggestions to save money. With the price of gas, why not give employees who can work from home a choice " work from home with a 5 percent cut in pay. Gas and clothes prices would make up for the 5 percent cut.

Also all state agencies are on the NEATs system for payroll, every payday thousands of employees have their monies direct deposited into their banks but still get a hard copy of their checks. But these can be viewed in NEATS; if you have to have a hard copy, print it on your printer. That could save a lot.

Also, I know this sounds small, but turning off the lights could save. All employees run households and seem to make it without going over budget, why not get suggestions from them for little things to do and take them seriously. Most of us are smarter than the politicians, and I'm sure that there are many who can come up with at least one way for their agency to save money.

ANGELA FURTON

Carson City

Don't degrade education further

As Gov. Gibbons and the Legislature consider what spending cuts to make in this time of economic crisis, I have something to add to the debate.

I'm a native Nevadan. I got my BA from University of Oregon Honors College; my MA from University of New Mexico. I have taught at the University of Nevada, as an Artist in Residence teaching gifted and talented children, as a tutor of ESL and English at WNC and at the English Department at Ely State Prison. Altogether, I estimate I have taught 10,000 students from K-Seniors in college.

In 2000, I retired and returned to my home in Carson City. After calling on firemen, police officers, and teachers to join with Nevada State PERS to "make a bigger pool for health insurance benefits", I acceded to those wishes and was summarily, along with many hundreds of civil servants in this state, cheated out of affordable health insurance in retirement, as the price was raised so high we had to opt out of the state retirement system.

Now, the very foundation of education in Nevada is threatened. We already are 50th in the nation in per pupil expenditure in the elementary and secondary schools. Now, we will further degrade the educational standards, which got me into a fine university once. Now, we are threatening to dismantle the University of Nevada system to the degree that students will not receive a meaningful post-secondary education in spite of increased tuition. They will not be competitive with degrees granted from such a degraded institution.

Remember, adjunct faculty teaches by far the bulk of under graduate courses in colleges these days, and their positions will be at risk with the proposed budget cuts. Alas, the training that could raise students in this state out of minimum wage status and help bridge the economic gap from the horrendous decline in construction will not be forthcoming if these cuts succeed. Once again Nevada will deny that education provides decent wages in stable occupations and that this could provide a magnificent and stable addition to the state's tax base.

Please consider these ramifications, when you as a citizen propose input for future budget cuts; please, if you are a legislator, consider what a laughingstock the education system of this, the fastest growing state in the nation, will be when these hatchet renderings are finished. And we wonder why people think we are a wasteland.

Elizabeth I. Riseden

Carson City

What to do about high gas prices

Maybe we should become a nation of winos? Consider, we can get Two Buck Chuck (for $3) or we can get Five Buck Gas (for, probably soon, $6 to $8 or $10). What's the choice? All we need is one non-drinking driver to run to the store to buy Two Buck Chuck (for $3) with all we save on gasoline by staying home, worrying about nothing.

By staying home we won't work, won't produce, won't keep our jobs, won't keep the economy going, but also won't use any gas. (Won't even use any heating oil or propane because we won't need it with all that wine we've consumed.)

No brainer!

On the other hand, nobody will go to work to produce the wine, the price of wine will go up, the store will close, and we'll all run out of money.

Oh, maybe we ought to drill and refine oil so we can still buy some gas and just a little wine. Healthier, too.

JUDY JACOBS

Topaz Lake