JUST THE FACTS March 01, 2001 page five

A 27% RAISE FOR ELECTED OFFICIALS?

On Wednesday, February 21, 2001 Assembly Bill 256 was introduced in the Nevada State Legislature. If it is passed, all county elected officials will receive a 27% raise except of the Board of County Commissioners who are slated for a 21% raise. The Tax Payers League, after thoroughly considering the governor's Task Force report which recommended the raises, presented the eureka Board of County Commissioners with a written request asking them to adopt a resolution opposing such tremendous salary increases and asking them to forward a copy of such resolution to the state legislature.

When the task force report which recommends the raises is carefully studied, it no where shows that the cost of living has risen 27% since the last raises were created, nor does it offer proof that there has been anywhere near a 27% increase in the elected officials' workloads or in their duties.

It certainly does not reveal that the average county worker or state worker is getting anywhere near a 27% increase in their pay for the same time period.

We do not oppose reasonable raises for any governmental employee be they elected or appointed as long as it is tied to some tangible date that justifies it. We believe most citizens feel the same way.

A special thank you to those Eureka residents who have made or pledged donations to help with a tax payer's medical bills!

Marie Smart and David Ward have asked the League to express, on their behalf, their very heartfelt thanks for the very generous response to Marie's needs for funds to help with very expensive medical bills incurred after she unexpectedly suffered news of a very serious medical condition. Thanks to your help, she tells us, she is able to concentrate more on healing and less on what she owes the healers which, she relates, is a big relief. They will be thanking everyone personally once this ordeal is finally over. They also wish to state that the League's motto, "People do make a difference" is very true indeed. Please lend your prayers also.

FUTURE NEWS FEATURES

We have been inundated with stories which our membership believes should be written about and which prove that there are a lot of instances of waste of funds in our local justice system and which demonstrate abuses of official power.

Unfortunately, we can't print all of the ones received to date in the limited space we have in this issue.

In our next column of Who Do They think They Are you will learn about the case of a local and well respected business man who spent over a year on house arrest for a petty offense, who is now serving jail time because the court will not give him credit for house arrest, and who has been punished excessively when compared with three other similar cases for which the perpetrators received far lesser punishments.

You will also learn that an extraordinary amount of Eureka Tax Payer dollars is being used to pay the White Pine Public Guardian and a White Pine private attorney for allegedly rendering services to an elderly Eureka citizen who was involuntarily committed even though she engaged in no wrongful conduct and even though she was well cared for by her family. You'll learn that when her family members complained of her wrongful confinement the court issued orders barring the family from normally allowed visits. Stay Tuned!