🚀 go-pugleaf

The rationale is that you (and most tourists visiting Vegas) don't vote in 
Nevada.  Few local residents/voters rent cars at the airport.  

Consider taking a cab or bus to downtown L.V. and renting there.  The
cost of the cab is probably about equal to the on-airport surcharge.  Look
into airfares and schedules into Flagstaff, AZ rather than Vegas (unless
you are planning to do more than just visit the airport there).  Check into
rates charged by small, no-name, local rental agencies.  (Find a Vegas
Yellow Pages in a library.)  Take a Grey Line bus tour of the Grand Canyon.
  (Boy, that's a stretch of a suggestion!)

See today's (Fri 6/14) Wall St. Journal about the very issue you are 
railing against.  You are over the proverbial barrel.
---
Gary M. Klauber