Las Vegas Monorail doesn’t deserve taxpayer funds
Most people agree that the true joy of Christmas is not what you get, but what you give. As I read the Tuesday letter, “Monorail help,” from Paul Grasewicz, I was reminded of this truth and how it is often misunderstood.
According to Mr. Grasewicz, it’s not fair that taxpayers subsidize the Regional Transportation Commission’s bus operations while letting the Las Vegas Monorail fend for itself. In the true Christmas spirit, he suggests giving $10 million a year to the monorail company. To support this proposition, he addresses the fact that the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority could easily afford to give the money to the monorail. He also paints a picture of a decaying monorail system dissuading convention-goers.
With all due respect, however, Mr. Grasewicz is looking at only half the picture. To his first point — that “only 52 percent” of the RTC’s bus “expenses are covered by rider fares” and the rest come from taxes — how is this possibly a good business model? Why not question this before spending more money?
As far as the decaying monorail becoming an eyesore, we live in Las Vegas, the capital of demolition. We follow the creed “out with the old and in with the new” to an extreme. If the system fails, new ones will replace it, saving money and therefore giving joy to us Las Vegans. After all, isn’t that what Christmas is all about?
