Make changes that make sense

By Fredrick Wilkening, Las Vegas

Tuesday, April 7, 2015 | 2 a.m.

I think it’s a shame that the new Republican majority in Nevada doesn’t understand that turning the state upside down and governing are two different things. If they want to control the Assembly after the next election, they should start fixing problems that everyday Nevadans have to deal with.

The Republicans have made no bones about their concerns regarding public employees’ salaries and benefits, so what do they do? They do away with prevailing wage on school construction. That’s sure going to fix unfunded liabilities under the Public Employees’ Retirement System, won’t it?

I guess no one ever told our modern-day Republicans that the Davis–Bacon Act was written by Republicans — U.S. Sen. James Davis and U.S. Rep. Robert Bacon — and that’s a shame because those elected officials were looking out for their constituents.

Getting back to PERS, the state of Nevada made a promise to their employees (state, county and city): Work hard for 30 years and we will take care of you. (Government employees do not get Social Security.) It’s a promise to which we as a people need to adhere. If you want to fix PERS, stop allowing employees to purchase pension credits to retire early! Other than that, the PERS pension fund has been making huge gains in the stock market for years, so what’s to fix? You should tweak it, but not the way you want to fix it!

You want to fix something? Fix the Department of Motor Vehicles or unemployment, or both if you are feeling so ambitious!