Letters to the editor for Sunday, Sept. 25, 2016

Vote yes on Question 4

Shockingly, it was recently learned that veterans and active military and their dependents are also being charged sales tax on their home medical equipment. That’s right: Those who were asked to make the ultimate sacrifice. These warriors, past and present, are insured through a company called Tricare. Tricare insureds are currently not exempt from Nevada sales tax on home medical equipment.

A yes vote on ballot Question No. 4 (the Medical Patient Tax Relief Act) would begin the process of exempting our veterans and military personnel as well as others who are sick and injured and need medical equipment at home.

Both the cities of Reno and Las Vegas have stated that the loss of revenue from this tax is “immaterial.”

Let’s stop this nonsense and pass ballot Question No. 4.

Doug Bennett

Reno

Development threatening Carson’s water resources

It was bound to come to this after five years of drought. The Legislative Subcommittee to Study Water is proposing five bill draft requests for the upcoming 2017 session. These bill draft requests are not good news for domestic well owners.

Water is everything! Nothing else is more important than water. To domestic well owners, check your property water rights. Does the state engineer have any right to tell you anything about how much of your water you are allowed to use? Here in Carson City, we are buying water from the Minden and Lyon County. Why? I talked to the Carson City Water Subconservency District.

To my surprise, we do have water here in Eagle Valley. The levels of arsenic and uranium make it too toxic for consumption. Filtering systems were deemed too expensive to build and maintain; shipping the radioactive uranium to Wyoming for storage was also deemed way too expensive. Unfortunately, development is king here in Nevada. If someone can explain to me how bringing more people to a community benefits it in any way, I would love to hear from you.

Bottom line, whenever your city supervisors, or whomever your governing board is, wants to talk about development, you might remind them that more people means additional users of an already stressed resource, and not only “NO,” but “HELL NO” would you want or approve said development! And above all, pay close attention to your community’s growth master plan and zoning requirements, before it’s too late.

Hope Tingle

Carson City

Although great, Ali wasn’t greatest humanitarian

Regarding the front page on Sept. 16, “The Greatest Humanitarian,” Muhammad Ali was great, but not the greatest.

A boxer who gave much more to Americans was Joe Louis. In 1942 his last two heavyweight fights before he was drafted he gave all of his winnings to the Army Relief Fund and the Navy Relief Fund.

Michael J. Perna

Carson City

Letter writer wrongfully attacked Mallory Wilson

To Mr. Heinrichs:

I read your letter in regards to Mallory Wilson and I have a few questions to ask of you.

Why did you find it necessary to attack her? What makes you think you are qualified to judge her? Did you attend her interview with Supervisor Bagwell for this position? Did you attend any of the Board of Equalization meetings in 2015 and 2016? What does it matter if she works at Papa Murphy’s? Since when has it become demeaning to work for a pizza shop? At least she is working and taking care of herself as a responsible person. Who cares if her step dad is Supervisor Bonkowski? I certainly don’t.

Since my husband sat on the Board of Equalization with Mallory I asked him if she did a good job on that board for the past two years. His reply to me was, she was very thorough on the upcoming tax cases to be heard before the board and he found no problem with her sitting on that board. She goes over each tax case before it is presented and is well prepared before hearing the case.

Here’s a little simple advice, in the future if you wish to defend your friend Chris Carver, try to talk about his abilities and qualifications to be mayor instead of attacking a young lady who was only defending herself from what she judged as personal attacks from Chris Carver.

Faye Semmens

Carson City