LETTERS: No schools near traffic, senior housing

To the editor:

Coral Academy should find another location in Henderson (“Henderson charter school delayed to 2016,” April 24 Review-Journal online). To house a school in retail space at a busy intersection is absurd. School is a permanent entity. It should be in a quiet surrounding, on a campus where classes are held without traffic noise. Students are safe in such an environment and have ample spaces outside the classroom for recess and athletic activities.

The traffic at the intersection of Green Valley Parkway and Horizon Ridge Parkway has been increasingly busy over the years, and it will be even busier once new apartment buildings are occupied and more retail stores are built in the shopping center. It would be a traffic disaster should Coral Academy decide to move in. The cars would be queued a mile long, and the bottleneck scenario is unimaginable. Parents would be frustrated while dropping off kids. Kids would be wandering in the adjacent Sun City MacDonald Ranch senior neighborhood or walking on the street. Please have vision and don’t let that scenario happen.

City officials should keep the welfare of all citizens in mind — seniors, youth and adults. Officials cannot cater to one group and disregard the other. The school would destroy the tranquility of senior living at MacDonald Ranch, which more than 4,000 call home. It will be inconvenient to and disturb so many who need to rest during the day. Of course, the property values will plummet. Who wants to buy a house next to a school playground?

The only party that would benefit from this is the owner of the empty building. Henderson is a huge city. Please look elsewhere for an ideal location to lease or to build a long-lasting school that will benefit students and make Henderson proud.

PATRICIA TUNG

HENDERSON

Lackluster Legislature

To the editor:

I am extremely disappointed with the Nevada Legislature’s lack of, or timid, reforms to state government. Why isn’t the prevailing wage law repealed completely? Why do public employee unions still get compulsory collective bargaining? Where is the pension reform? Are Uber and Lyft legalized yet? These are no-brainer moves for a Republican-led Legislature.

Where is the cry to stop Gov. Brian Sandoval’s pre-K, all-day kindergarten and English Language Learner programs? Haven’t we heard the “more money for education” claptrap before? Yes, we have, in every legislative session since the beginning of time. We’ve raised taxes several times in the name of education. What good has it done? None.

Gov. Sandoval is bought and paid for by special interests. He doesn’t care about you or me. If taxes are raised, another pay boost will go to those who feed at the trough of Big Government, namely unions, consultants and other hangers-on. All that is left now is a Hail Mary effort to stop Gov. Sandoval’s tax increases.

The proposed business license tax is a complete absurdity. Nevada voters rejected a similar levy — the margins tax — just months ago. How is Gov. Sandoval able to convince legislators to vote for such a plan? That’s the billion-dollar question.

MIKE MATHEWS

LAS VEGAS

Henderson hiring practices

To the editor:

Who is surprised by the rampant nepotism in the city of Henderson? (“Six of Mayor Hafen’s relatives on Henderson’s payroll,” May 4 Review-Journal). Me neither.

At least Mayor Hafen could stop insulting our intelligence by claiming he had no input into the hiring of six relatives. None of us is stupid enough to believe his kinfolk got their jobs on their own merits, without his help. It’s business as usual throughout Clark County.

PATRICIA DUCHARME

HENDERSON

Where is the money?

To the editor:

The headline on Megan McArdle’s Social Security commentary asked a very good question (“Where will all this money come from?” April 19 Review-Journal). Ms. McArdle referred to the worn-out solutions of our forefathers, cutting spending or raising taxes. To her credit, she realizes neither will work in today’s society.

Our so-called elected representatives realize that spending cuts or new taxes can result in an early retirement from their jobs, so they talk about it and do neither. The annual budget process in Congress has become a charade. As a result, the federal government has become a bloated, grossly overpaid, inefficient monstrosity.

Social Security entitlements are just one of many huge fiscal problems on which the federal government should be asking, “Where will all this money come from?” That question should be asked at the Pentagon, the State Department, the Department of Education, the Environmental Protection Agency, Health and Human Services and the rest of the D.C. alphabet soup.

The same elected representatives also refuse to address the enormous debt we have created, at $18 trillion and counting. When those bills come due, somebody at the Treasury Department should be asking: “Where will all this money come from?”

The answer is a no-brainer: the feds will run the money presses even faster.

CURTIS F. CLARK

BOULDER CITY