Letter: Taxpayers shouldn't pay twice for officials

In the Oct. 11 paper, the article titled "Nevada 15th in high taxes" was very revealing. I thought about why it was so expensive to live in Nevada.

It was clear to me that Gov. Guinn is on the right track. Government over the years has become very inefficient. Department managers tend to operate with no regard to overhead costs, as it is easy to obtain taxpayers funds to cover the necessary dollars.

This example led me to think about our next local election and how government inefficiency is demonstrated. It takes a lot of time to run a campaign for an office. This means that the candidate must take time off from work. If the candidate works for an employer or is self employed the time away from work doesn't cost the taxpayer.

I cannot understand why that when the State Government is under the microscope to tighten its spending, state department managers allow their employees to take time off to campaign.

This gets even worse when one realizes that if the candidate were to win, the taxpayer would be paying two salaries. When a candidate working in the private sector wins, the taxpayer only pays one salary.

In a small way I will help reduce the cost of state government by making sure that any candidate I vote for in the next election isn't already working for the state. We should all make sure that, we the taxpayer, do not pay the same person twice for 40 hours. We, the voter, should examine the candidates present employment status before voting for the candidate.

LOU deBOTTARI

Carson City