We pay more, utility executives get rich

To the editor:

I found your May 5 article, “SWEET 16: The highest paid executives in Las Vegas,” very interesting.

I was astonished that the top 16 included the chief executive officers of NV Energy and Southwest Gas. These two companies hold monopolies in our valley to provide energy to all the residents, and they regularly ask for and receive increases in their rates, which they say are to improve their bottom line, reward their shareholders and construct new facilities, but never to pay exorbitant salaries to their top executives.

You can bet that if the CEOs are making this kind of money ($3 million to $7 million per year with huge severance packages) there are many lower-level executives making big money as well.

VIRGINIA FINNEGAN

HENDERSON

Too high a bar

To the editor:

I want to thank Josh Haldeman (“High school test sets too high a hurdle,” April 28 letter) along with Gerry Baxter (“If students have credit, let them graduate,” Thursday letter) for what seems an extraordinarily simple solution: Our education system has buried most of our students in tests that set too high a hurdle.

Our daughter earned honors all throughout her school years, with music included, but she had the hardest time passing the math portion. I was amazed at how difficult the math test was, and with great relief, she barely passed. To this day, I can’t even imagine that she could pass it again, or for whatever reason she would need to use this math again in her life’s endeavors.

Then they were forcing her to take the required Spanish class, so we transferred her to another state for that semester to avoid the requirement.

The best math course they should be expecting from young adults is how to manage a bank account, understanding good credit vs. bad credit and how our economy works. All they seem to know is ATMs without any understanding of our financial institutions. Young people have no concept of credit or how it works in our daily lives. All they see is a piece of plastic.

The next best course would be work ethic. I haven’t seen a teenager mow anyone’s grass since I was a kid in school, and then the competition was fierce as to who got the job.

It’s all about getting a degree using government loan money they won’t be able to pay back to get jobs that don’t pay well in most instances.

The math portion didn’t help the graduate get a job driving a cab.

We’re not helping them, we’re hurting them.

BOB BRODOSKI

LAS VEGAS

Senior Stones

To the editor:

It was interesting to read what Doug Elfman wrote about the Rolling Stones’ concerts in his May 6 column, “Brown celebrates birthday, vomits.” Mr. Elfman stated that ticket prices were suddenly lowered to $85 for the concert in Los Angeles last week, and that tickets were still on sale for their concert here.

Maybe the Stones will now realize that their biggest fan base is today in retirement age, just like them, and that they don’t have $474 to $780 of their fixed income to blow on a concert.

I think the days of their overpriced concert tickets selling out in minutes are over.

WILLIAM H. ISAAC II

HENDERSON