Letters to the Editor

Thank you to voters

and friends

I would like to take this time to say “thank you so very much” to all of you who put your faith in me and voted to re-elect me to continue to represent you as your Nye County commissioner in District 3 for a second term. I would also like to thank all of you who live in other districts and could not vote for me but supported me in so many other ways.

A big thank you also goes out to all of you who donated both in kind and monetarily and who helped my husband put up and take down my signs and those who watched over them for us.

Thank you to all the staff at both the Pahrump Valley Times and the Mirror, plus KPVM TV and their radio station for having the patience to help me put all of my ads together so professionally and in remembrance of Herb Melvoin, who was responsible for getting me there to do so.

Also, thanks you to all of the members at the NCRCC who voted me the winner of the “Republican Principles Award” for two straight years and those who were also there on election night help celebrate our win and victory together.

And a special thank you to my husband and all of the other members of my family who have worked relentlessly to help me get where I am today and who have supported me through thick and thin over the years with all their hard work.

I could not have done it without their co-operation and all of you. It really does take teamwork and thank you for being members of our team. I love you all!!!

Take Care and be Safe,

Donna Cox

Tax on medical equipment to be on November ballot

It pleases me to tell you the petition “Medical Patient Tax Relief Act” has been submitted to county registrars statewide. There were over 100,000 signatures on the petition. The Alliance verified over 66,000 registered voter signatures before we stopped counting. As you may know, 55,234 verified registered voter signatures are required to become a ballot measure on the upcoming November ballot.

Should the Nevada Secretary of State approve the petition, voters will be given the opportunity to eliminate sales and use tax on home medical equipment required by sick, injured and dying Nevada citizens.

Examples of this are quadriplegics using electric wheelchairs, infants on ventilators, respiratory and cardiac patients using oxygen, and many types of mobility devices. Although the ballot measure must be passed twice, dying hospice patients would no longer be taxed for their home hospital beds, oxygen, or other equipment necessary to sustain their comfort and dignity in their final weeks or days.

Nevada is one of the few states in the country that charges sales and use tax on home medical equipment and is doing so despite a 1990 Nevada Supreme Court decision to exempt all oxygen administration, calling the only court case on this issue invalid because it was “unpublished.” Instead, the Nevada Department of Taxation has chosen to interpret the statutes in a greedy and inhumane manner causing such hardships as a quadriplegic having to pay up to $1,600 in taxes for his electric wheelchair. People in need of home medical equipment suffer from their injury or disease, their medical expenses, and have lost their jobs and subsequent income because they are unable to work.

Now the DOT literally wants to add insult to injury by taxing medical equipment that their physician has ordered and they cannot live without.

In 1996, Nevadans voted by a large majority to exempt prosthetics and orthotics from sales and use tax. I believe this compassion and empathy will again be shown by the citizens of this state with a yes vote on this ballot measure in November.

Doug Bennett

Alliance to Stop Taxes on the Sick &Dying

Reader calls VEA rate increase ‘bait and switch’

The PVT lead article, “VEA Approves 9.9 Percent Rate Increase” was well positioned because it is of direct effect to everyone in Pahrump. It also sounds like a gas station price fix, an attempt to dissuade us from actually seeing a TEN PERCENT jump in our electric bills. More of the deceitful mindset of the PR spinners at VEA, aka “Bait and Switch”.

I have no problem with paying those guys who risk their lives handling very high voltage electric lines - a skill of great value. I do have a problem with the VEA super high salary administration, plus pensions, raising our rates for energy when EVERY worldwide energy source has gone down in price over the past year. Pass along savings? Perhaps pass up executive salary boost would be a better description. Maybe the VEA administration needs a Brexit, too.

Fred Dexter

Another scam targeting seniors

I would like to inform the seniors of Pahrump that a new scam is here.

They claim to be from Publishers Clearing House saying you won one and a half million and a new car. They ask you to go to Smith’s or Walmart and send a money order for $499.96 to Tammy Greer in Texas.

Luckily we knew something was wrong. I received a call from Verizon telling me I was getting overseas calls from Bermuda.

Please tell the seniors of Pahrump and surrounding area to be aware.

Thanks,

Joe and Kaye Smith

How should we dispose of nuclear waste?

It’s fair to say that most residents of Nye County are not scientists, nor do the majority of us have the engineering background to fully understand technical details related to storage of nuclear waste.

What we might agree on however, is that when knowledgeable people tell us we have nothing to worry about, it may be time to think about packing up or at least dusting off the bunker gear. Consider as well that this issue isn’t limited to the United States. Every country using nuclear power must contend with the by-product. Collectively, that amounts to a lot of irradiated material. On a more positive note, we can be confident that nuclear power plants are relatively safe and are an economical source of electricity. We could probably use more of them.

But the question remains. What method for disposing of radioactive waste will provide reasonable assurance of no future problems? A few what ifs come to mind.

• What if the world’s nuclear powers agreed on a joint effort to lift all radioactive waste off the planet and send it on a collision course toward the largest nuclear generator in the solar system, the Sun?

• What if the venture included constructing a new and technically advanced space shuttle?

• What if expendable cargo platforms were assembled in low Earth orbit to carry nuclear waste on its final journey?

• What if, as a cost-saving measure, the platforms were connected to reusable, remotely controlled propulsion (acceleration) units?

• What if cooperative nations delivered their contaminates to a launch site in the Pacific where it would remain in temporary storage until a designated launch date? Another question. How many launches would be required in any given year to fill an orbiting waste carrier? I’ll leave that to the experts.

Are there any risks? Absolutely. But think about it. The technology exists to do this. And with the cost sharing among nations in a well-managed program, the benefits could be enormous. Of course, getting started is always the toughest part, so here’s a final what if.

What if the White House instructed our UN representative to bring this matter before the General Assembly? That could be the perfect forum in which to arouse interest and get the ball rolling.

Ralph Bazan