Renaming airport not worth the cost
To the editor:
I cannot believe that there is consideration being given to renaming McCarran International Airport ("Councilman pushes for airport name change," Tuesday Review-Journal). The benefits of re-branding the airport would not outweigh the costs.
I believe the cost would push $1 million with signage, advertising etc. It would also cause additional expenses to airlines.
This name change would not generate additional traffic to Las Vegas. Tourists go to Las Vegas, not to Las Vegas International Airport. Consider Chicago's O'Hare, New York's JFK and LaGuardia, Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport, etc. When traveling, people do not ask what airport you are traveling to, but where are you going or flying.
With the local economy the way it is, this money should be channeled to where it can make a difference and not to some name change.
Bob McDonald
Las Vegas
Civics lesson
To the editor:
As schoolchildren, we are taught that we live in a democracy and that we can vote. We are told that our elected officials go to Washington and pass laws that are good for our country and that our elected officials must "answer" to the people.
This is instilled in our brain at an early age and we continue to believe it, even when evidence continues to mount to the contrary. Here is classic example.
Over the Fourth of July weekend, little stories appeared in newspapers that small tobacco shops were being closed by the federal government. Buried deep in a transportation bill, a new federal law changed the definition of a "manufacturer" and assessed a tax on small businesses that owned cigarette-rolling machines and allowed customers to buy tobacco and roll their own cigarettes. The law didn't ban the machines; it simply taxed them and regulated them out of existence.
Curious readers might assume that anti-smoking activists or the American Medical Association led such a charge. They would be wrong - it was lead by Altria, the parent company of Phillip Morris, one of the largest cigarette companies in the country. Surely, then, the government was concerned about public health, lung cancer and secondhand smoke? Nope.
Here is your answer. According to the South Florida Sun Sentinel: "The interest in roll-your-own smokes has grown since 2009 after a federal excise tax on tobacco rose dramatically, affecting the price of packaged cigarettes. Roll-your-own shops use loose pipe tobacco, which was less affected by the tax hike. ... Where a carton of packaged cigarettes would cost more than $60, they sold at Double D's Tobacco for $26.99."
The law was passed simply because smokers could get a carton of cigarettes for $33 less, if they rolled their own in a smoke shop, instead of buying the corporate product. The government wasn't getting its tax cut and the big corporation was losing sales - a political match made in heaven.
Let's wave the flag now.
The new law is a win-win, except for the hundreds of small shops that are now out of business and the thousands of people who have now lost their jobs. In its June 6 article, the Review-Journal quotes local owner Robert Wiessen, who is more direct: "The man who pushed for this bill is Sen. (Max) Baucus from Montana, and he received donations from Altria, a parent company of Philip Morris. Interestingly enough, there are also no RYO machines in the state of Montana. It really makes me question the morals and values of our elected speakers."
This is how government and power really work in our purported democracy. There is no market to determine the winners and losers. If you want to win, you hire lobbyists and put your competitors out of business. If your competitor has just as much money as you, then you create a trade group and regulate the smaller competitors out of business.
This is the sad sorry state of affairs of our current body politic.
Joseph A. Scalia
Las Vegas
Meat lover
To the editor:
Heidi Knapp-Rinella's Wednesday story, "Vegas Strip Steak could be in supermarkets soon," caught both my eye and my appetite. As one who enjoys sizzling prime beef, I applaud Tony Mata, the self-identified "Meat Geek," on his intelligence and creativity in obtaining a patent and then having the wherewithal to see his idea through to completion.
I am sure his Vegas Strip Steak will appeal to consumers in Las Vegas.
As a Southern Californian who enjoys visiting Las Vegas, I look forward to sampling this product. The name alone is worth a second look. Who said dreams can't come true?
David Tulanian
Los Angeles
On the job
To the editor:
Let the wealthy prove they are job creators. Allow the Bush tax cuts for the top 4 percent of earners (as an example) to lapse and then provide tax incentives for job creation. Create criteria that would allow tax deductions in proportion to the number of jobs created.
As an example, proof of 100 jobs created (according to established criteria) would result in a tax deduction of a certain percentage; proof of 1,000 jobs created would result in a higher tax deduction and so on. This would give the conservatives and GOP an opportunity to prove their point, while at the same time provide for revenue if, in fact, the assumption that the wealthy are the job creators falls short of the mark.
Let's establish tax policy on a proof-of-principle approach instead of on the basis of an assumption that is historically questionable.
Steven Smith
Las Vegas
