I recently returned home to Nevada from a trip to Kansas City. It was one of those trips where you pass your family in the airport, they were arriving at KC to begin a vacation while I was returning home to work. Upon arriving home, I was welcomed by a neglected swimming pool… I mean really neglected. It was around 8:00 in the evening and I need to get some pool chemicals, quick. I thought what would be open at that hour that would have what I needed. Both K-Mart and Walmart came to mind. K-Mart won out because it was closer.
Upon exiting K-Mart with the chemicals in hand, just outside the K-Mart entrance doors, I was commandeered by a man with a petition in his hand. He had not only me corned, but another elderly lady. To her unfortunate, she had been tied up with him for several minutes before I arrived. She seemed to be asking him some intelligent questions, but he was really pushing her and now me, to sign this petition to get our kids better education. He said our kids education in Nevada was one of the worst ranked in the nation. She asked him if there were any taxes increases involved? He told her she needed to sign the petition, so if taxes was an issue, she could vote against it at the ballot box. That lady was pretty sharp because until that point she had half of her signature on the petition. She scratched her name off and told him if she didn’t sign his petition, she wouldn’t have to vote against it. It would be a non-issue.
I watched this guy for several minutes tie up people as they exited K-Mart. The vast majority were not as sharp as my elderly lady friend; they signed their names on the petition because they didn’t want their kids education to be ranked so poorly.
In a recent Teacher’s Union newsletter to the public, the Union amplified their Snake Oil campaign. Their rhetoric like “quality schools” and “kids counting on us” are all blatant smoke screens. Their apparent mission is to advocate the economic security of their members. They accused the business community of not supporting education, because it’s opposition to their special-interest tax proposal. If their initiative is approved, it will permanently damage the economic health of our state.
According to the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, “…no matter how the Union tries to shape their arguments, their tax proposal does the following:
Raises ¼ billion dollars with zero
accountability of your income
Creates a Nevada IRS where
your personal information will be shared with the
federal IRS
Destroys economic diversification and your business development
Most importantly, it avoids real education reform
No matter how you feel about education, the Union’s tax proposal is damaging to al! residents of Nevada. It is bad tax policy and it ties the hands of our representatives to make educated choices of where our tax dollars should be spent.
Hundreds of parents, business owners, organizations, and other concerned citizens have come together to be one voice opposing this new tax. They are known as the Nevada. Pro-Education Alliance. The main goal of the alliance is to fight the union’s new tax. Moreover, the alliance will be aggressively working to pass real education reform during the 2001 Legislative Session.
The Nevada Pro-Education Alliance supports:
Guaranteeing that government spend within its limits before raising new taxes
Quality education reform that addresses
the educational needs of our children
Stopping special interest unions
from dictating tax policy to Nevada voters
Implementing higher salaries for
teachers who excel
Supporting meaningful class-size
reduction
Promoting competency testing for
all teachers
No one cares more about Nevada’s education system than the businesses that depend on it. For more information on the Alliance, call (702) 615-5018.
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