Letters We Get

Editor, The Observer,

Nice opinion piece, Johnny (See Government Spying, Vol.2, No. 16, June 15, 2005)

One time about four years ago I pitched a story idea in our morning news meeting at KOLO about how tourists were staying away from seeing the courthouse where movie stars and financiers used to get their quickie divorces. I had watched some tourists walk up the courthouse steps on Virginia, see the airport-style security inside the door, and turn around and leave. I found out that 99.99 percent of all courthouse security problems were in family court, so there was no need for the airport gear in the courthouse at all, since the family court was on Sierra. Anyway, I pitched this story and one of our producers, a twenty-something, did not understand the story at all. She had grown up with security all over the place, and her frame of reference was that it was natural. It really disturbed me that a generation is growing up thinking of these things as normal. And now, as you report, there's the next stage-- a generation growing up thinking surveillance is normal.

By the way, I notice you mention 1984. If you haven't already read it, you might pick up Neil Postman's book Amusing Ourselves To Death. He argues that Huxley's vision in Brave New World of our being lulled into submission by pleasure and satisfaction (VCRs, luxury cars, etc.) represents as great a threat as Orwell's vision in 1984.

Take care,

Dennis Meyers, Reno

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Editor, The Observer,

For your information:

The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles doesn't issue checks and never has. All checks drawn on state accounts are issued by the Controller's Office. Some Nevadans have been confused about that because the press has characterized both Governor Guinn's and Senator Bob Beers' proposal to rebate excess tax revenue as a "DMV rebate." Some journalists have even written that "the DMV will rebate...." The confusion has been enough for some individuals that they have gone to DMV offices asking for their checks.

AB 572 establishes a special account in the State's General Fund for the purpose of rebating general state funds. Here's how the bill reads:

Section 1. 1 The Account for the One-Time Rebate is hereby created within the State General Fund. The Governor, with assistance from the State Treasurer, shall administer the Account.

Sec. 2. There is hereby appropriated from the State General Fund to the Account created by section 1 of this act the sum of $300,000,000 to pay the costs incurred for issuing and paying negotiable instruments of rebate as required by section 3 of this act.

Sec. 3. 1. The Governor, with assistance from the State Treasurer and the Director of the Department of Motor Vehicles, shall establish a program pursuant to which the Governor issues a negotiable instrument of rebate to:

(a) Each owner of each vehicle that was registered in this State during the 2004 calendar year; and

(b) Each person who was at least 65 years of age on or before January 1, 2005, held a valid identification card issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles on or before that date and continues to hold such valid identification card.

The Nevada DMV will provide the Controller's Office with the information it needs to write the rebate checks in the proper amount to the proper people. The rebate approved by the legislature will go to people who registered vehicles in Nevada in 2004. Additionally, Nevadans 65 or over who hold a Nevada ID card but didn't have a vehicle registered in 2004 will get $75. The rebate is based upon vehicle registration for most Nevadans. It has nothing to do with licensed drivers as you wrote in your most recent edition.

The question of whether the Controller's Office is able to handle the task of writing and mailing over a million checks in a timely manner or whether they will need outside help should, of course, be addressed by the Controller's Office. The question of how quickly the rebate checks can be written and mailed depends upon the coordinated efforts of the DMV, the Controller's Office and the State Treasurer. By the end of the week, we should have the answers to those two questions.

I hope I've cleared up any confusion on your part. Should you have questions you want answered, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Tom Jacobs, Lead Public Information Officer, Nevada Dept. of Motor Vehicles