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| There have been a lot of questions and misrepresentations surrounding our Initiative Petition to Save Our Schools. The following are the facts about our Petition and our opponents. * Nevada schools rank forty-ninth out of the fifty states in per child funding. As a result, our schools and classrooms are overcrowded, we have a teacher shortage crisis and children don’t receive the individual attention they need. This initiative will provide our classrooms with much needed funding so we can attract the best teachers and provide children with schools and classrooms where they can learn. * Nevada public schools have the fourth highest student-teacher ratio out of the 50 states. * With a looming budget deficit, Nevada’s public schools will be shortchanged if the state doesn’t find an alternative way to fund them. Unless we want children in even more overcrowded schools and classrooms, we need to find a way to fund schools without increasing property or income taxes. A bigger contribution from the casino industry is the best option. * The educators of Nevada have proposed the Save Our Schools initiative because our K-12 education system in Nevada is in a state of funding crisis and, without this Initiative, there are no prospects for improvement. * The big Las Vegas casinos will apparently say and do anything to stop this Petition from reaching the voters. They have demonstrated in their vicious and misleading opposition that they will protect their precious profits at any cost, to the detriment of our children. While they will try to tell you that they care about education funding, they have done nothing to resolve the current funding crisis. Now they are prepared to defame educators, people who have dedicated their lives to educating Nevada’s children, to avoid paying their fair share. They will threaten dire economic consequences, loss of jobs etc. if this proposal is adopted. * The next time Big Gaming executives talk about how they can’t afford to pay more gaming taxes to support education in Nevada, ask them why their companies could afford to dish out nearly $3 billion in comps in 2006 – more than three times what ALL gaming companies in Nevada paid in ALL state gaming taxes. * No matter how dire the predictions of the gaming industry and their mercenaries, this is a moderate and fair proposal that would raise the gaming tax three percent. Even after this increase, our gaming tax would be among the lowest in the nation. The proceeds from this assessment would increase educator’s salaries and pay for programs that would increase student achievement. * The Gaming Tax paid by Nevada casinos is THE LOWEST IN THE WORLD. No matter how the big Las Vegas casinos try to spin it, this fact is indisputable. * Those big casinos in Las Vegas are busy exporting their profits to open even larger casinos in places like Macau where they pay a gaming tax of over 35%. * This proposal would only affect those big casinos that take in profits of over a million dollars a month. * The casino industry in Nevada profits more than 2 billion dollars a year and some casino executives made more than 10 million dollars in salary and bonuses just last year. While property taxes keep increasing, the casino tax has increased by less than 2 percent in fifty years. Casinos should do their part to fix the education funding crisis to help Nevada’s children. |
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