Saving money on ‘green’ can be awfully expensive
To the editor:
On July 9, the Review-Journal contained a story reporting that "LV cuts costs, goes greener with aid." The crux of the article was that the city is going to install solar panels on top of its carports in order to eliminate $300,000 per year in electrical costs. This will be done with taxpayer funding from local and federal grants.
The "payback" for this project, cited by some unknown entity, is 15 years. Good, but not great. So how does the taxpayer fare with all of this energy savings? Not very well.
Simple math shows that this $11 million project, without any cost overruns, has a payback of 36.7 years. This does not take into account repairs, normal maintenance, increases in electricity costs and an analysis of more cost effective uses for these funds.
Given that the life expectancy of these solar panels is likely to be no more than a simple break even -- at best -- return on investment, this is clearly a bad idea. However, I must admit that someone's pockets in Las Vegas will soon be "greener." It most certainly, however, won't be the taxpayers'.
Richard Rychtarik
LAS VEGAS
It's Sammy
To the editor:
Michael Jackson the world's greatest entertainer? I don't think so. Sammy Davis Jr. was the best ever. He could dance, sing, act and even do impressions.
Anybody who ever saw him on the "Tonight Show" back in the '70s when he did a dance to the song "Mr. Bojangles" will never forget it.
Rodney T. Elkins
LAS VEGAS
Turnip truck
To the editor:
The recently announced cost savings from Medicare and Medicaid, the drug companies and hospitals and the impending reduced payments to doctors are a stealth tax on the private sector.
Does anyone really expect that the drug companies and hospitals are really going to take a $235 billion hit on their earnings over the next 10 years, with many hospitals not even making a profit now? They will simply pass the costs on to the private payers in the form of higher fees and more billable tests and procedures.
These "cost savings" claimed by President Obama are fiction. He treats us as if we just got off the turnip truck.
Henry Schmid
LAS VEGAS
