LETTERS: Filing for unemployment an impossible task

To the editor:

Having been recently laid off, I now understand why the number of unemployment recipients has dropped. It is impossible to file under the new computer system. The online filing repeatedly tells you at the end of the registration that you must contact a representative in person. This is not realistic, as no one will answer the calls that I and others have repeatedly made.

The busy signal is standard until 9:30 a.m., at which point a recording will inform you that the representatives’ “call volumes are full for the day” (in other words, call the next day), or that you will receive a call back in “greater than three hours.” I have not received a call back in two weeks.

Obviously, our politicians don’t care about the people who fund their salaries. Needless to say, I have lost faith in our government to help us when we need it. As I listen to the same recording over and over, it is quite clear we need to get our elected officials out of office.

TERRY ALLEN

LAS VEGAS

Reid exemption

To the editor:

Is anyone really surprised that our dichotomy of a senator, Harry Reid, exempted members of his staff from the hell that is Obamacare (Thursday Review-Journal)? Several weeks ago, good ol’ Harry trumpeted, “Get used to it, it’s the law of the land.”

Perhaps he should have added, “except for those I do not want to impose this farce upon.” Thanks a lot, Sen. Reid, for foisting this terrible legislation upon us by cutting several back-room Democratic deals to ensure its passage.

Now tell us how we can exempt ourselves from this fiasco that you have perpetrated upon America.

GEORGE PUCINE

LAS VEGAS

Property tax cap

To the editor:

I read with great interest the editorial on the property tax cap (Nov. 22 Review-Journal). I am a widow on a fixed income. My house is almost 100 years old and charmingly inconvenient — no furnace, no air conditioning. But it’s paid for and the taxes had been reasonable — until the real estate boom.

Thanks to sound thinking by our legislators in 2005, I have been able to keep my house, even though the taxable and the assessed value more than doubled between 2005 and 2010. My tax bill increased by $75 a year, which I managed to pay. If not for the cap, I could very well have been unable to pay the tax and lost my home as a result. I’m sure I’m not the only one in this situation. Many people will not profit from rising property values, but will instead lose by having to pay higher and higher property taxes.

To mayors Carolyn Goodman of Las Vegas, Andy Hafen of Henderson and John Lee of North Las Vegas, I say to think about the folks in your cities whose incomes do not rise when property vales go up. We need the cap to stay in place so that we can stay in our place.

JEANNE CRAYTON

OVERTON