Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Racino no-brainer for economic development
When I first heard New Mexico would award a racino license, I was excited for Clovis.
When I moved here in 2014 — and acquired two hotels in 2015 — I was told a hard truth: Curry County’s gross-receipts tax was the second-highest in the state. That was hard to believe, considering how small we are.
After doing some thinking, it made sense — expenses are always there and they’re going to go up; but tax revenues were mediocre. There’s always a budget deficit and it’s only going to go up.
We only have a couple of choices: raise taxes or raise revenues to collect more GRT.
I thought a racino would not only do that, but also attract tourism dollars from our neighboring states.
A racino in Clovis will not only help sell Clovis to host a lot of corporate and government conventions, but also host a lot of entertainment activities. Also if a racino comes to Clovis, citizens do not have to burden any of the funding.
I have friends who own hotels in Ruidoso. They say they do 65 to 70 percent of their entire year’s business during the horseracing season.
It was funny to hear representatives from Ruidoso and Hobbs come to the racing commission meeting in Clovis and comment against awarding a racino license to Clovis. That would be like me going to city commissioners and telling them I don’t want any other hotels coming to Clovis.
But I am a firm believer that competition is healthy for everyone. It keeps businesses in check to provide customers the best service.
I understand everyone has their own moral beliefs or faith. But when it comes to an economic development of the town with zero financial liability to its citizens ... a racino is a no-brainer.
Danny Jariwala
Clovis
Pierce’s stances disqualify him
There are multitudes of challenges facing our country today — a congenital liar for a president, a congressional majority that does not have the backbone to stand up to the Liar in Chief.
Our nation as a democracy is being threatened, the president likes autocracy, the press is the enemy of the people, except Fox and the National Inquirer.
Trump thinks the Department of Justice, FBI and Secret Service should be loyal to him, not the country.
There is an old African proverb: “If you want to go quickly go alone; if you want to go far go together.”
There is one challenge larger than our nation addressing the threats to our form of government. That is global warming, the primary threat to civilization as we know it.
The scientists warn us that our window of addressing it is now about 2040. Scientists say that we have the technology to do it. The hurdle Is political will.
No one should be elected to any governmental position that has a record of opposing the science of global warming.
Steve Pearce has denied global warming. He is not stupid, but his judgment and ethics are highly questionable. He is against regulation of the fossil fuel industry, opposed to renewable energy subsidies but for fossil fuel subsidies being retained.
Pearce has done nothing to rein in a president that is a threat to our form of government and ignores the values our society is based on. His power is fear, prejudice and ignorance. The denying of scientific fact-based global warming threatens civilization. Those two disqualifies him.
Leon Logan
Tucumcari