MARK MY WORDS
ADVERTISING THE OBVIOUS
BY MARK WARDEN

Congratulations on reading the debut issue of Liberty Watch, The Magazine. In this and future issues, you will find pearls of journalistic and editorial wisdom not readily found in Nevada publications. Many of the ideas and opinions we offer will not be popular, especially among the ruling governmental elite. But you’ll love them — that is, unless you’re a city, county or state functionary filling your bank account from tax dollars extracted from the working people of our state.

My column is devoted to pointing out government waste, mismanagement and abuse. It’ll also explore how liberty is being eroded and pocketbooks drained by elected and unelected officials, who think they know how to better raise your children, manage your finances and handle your employees all while ordering you on how to eat, drink, drive, work, play and love.

Last month, I drove by a billboard at the corner of a busy intersection and noticed an advertisement from the Southern Nevada Water Authority, provider of water to homes and businesses in Las Vegas and surrounding areas. The sign asked, “Do you know your watering group?” with answers A, B, C, D, E and F offered.  

It’s not enough that every month, in every single water bill received in the mail, that the SNWA drums into our heads that we belong to a certain watering restriction group, only allowed by the mighty water police to water our lawns on our private property certain days and hours of the week. No, they have enough extra money after continually raising rates to buy a billboard in a prime-time location to reinforce who is in charge and that we’d better toe the line.

It’s good to know that the SNWA has plenty of our money to blow on needless advertising. It goes without saying there’s more than one of these billboards around town.

Even worse was the display last summer by the Clark County Regional Flood Control District, another taxpayer-subsidized bureaucracy, of several billboards around town in very expensive, high-traffic locations telling you not to drive into flooded roadways. Our money told us that cars don’t float and that raging water is dangerous to anyone who might try to drive or walk or swim through it. Thanks.

Even though anyone who watches TV knows the dangers of flood waters, they still felt compelled to remind citizens how mindless we are and what mother already taught.

Misappropriation of funds is rampant in local governments. Their coffers are overrunning with tax dollars, so each agency stretches to find more and more places to spend the money. God forbid they actually return it to the people who unwillingly gave it up. Rather, they know how to better spend your wages than you.

It’s time to hold local governments and bureaucrats accountable, and demand responsible fiscal management before it’s too late. That, dear readers, is a message billboard-worthy. LW