Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Squawkers, pay up or pipe down

In turn, I have been amazed and appalled regarding the recent board decision to charge non-city residents for use of special services at the Spokane Public Library.

I am amazed that the directors took so long to realize that city taxpayers have been subsidizing county residents in the amount of $1 million per year. The board has been negligent in its fiduciary responsibility to city taxpayers.

I am appalled at the county residents who are complaining because they have been asked to bear their fair share of the costs of running this library. It should be obvious that the right to use this facility comes with the responsibility to pay for it.

I do not see these people asking to be taxed for the level of service they expect, yet they balk at the user fee. I do not see them thanking city taxpayers for the past years of free service, but they continue to expect free services in the form of mailed materials and on-line computer hookups.

I would like to see the next letter to the editor from a complaining county resident include an explanation of why city taxpayers should underwrite their use of the Spokane Public Library when the county residents have free access to county libraries that provide the level of service supported by their tax dollars.

A public library should be open to the public, and the costs should be borne equally by the members of the public who use it. M. Edward Jeffers Jr. Spokane

King outreach center exemplary

On Jan. 16, I attended an open house at the Martin Luther King Jr. Family Outreach Center in recognition of its 25 years of service to Spokane’s youths.

This was a return visit for me. I had had the opportunity to visit the center in early October last year and was very impressed with its record of successful dedication to helping Spokane’s young people and families.

The center has an interesting and inspiring history. It grew out of a summer camp sponsored by First Presbyterian Church in 1970. Over the years, in partnership with the city of Spokane, it has acquired building space through support of the Comstock Foundation and United Way. Many Spokane community leaders and supporters have contributed time, money and energy to see this center continue to give young people and their parents assistance they would not likely otherwise receive.

The center serves children of all races, and more than 2,300 children and families in need have received its help.

The center is a good example of a non-governmental social service facility, locally administered, with the simple mission of helping children become good citizens. Its success will strengthen our community and society. George R. Nethercutt Jr. Representative, U.S. Congress

Officer just pushing his own agenda

I was moderately amused by your story, “A room of one’s own.” After chuckling over the ludicrousness of Mike Smith’s concerns about being exposed to exhaust fumes while out defiling his lungs with his own cigarette smoke, and his wife who won’t “let” him smoke at home, I turned my attention to a more serious issue.

The corrections officers at the Spokane County Jail have suffered some bad press over ongoing labor issues and certainly do not need more generated by someone who, under the guise of union representation, is pursuing his own agenda. It would be unfortunate if the general public truly believes “correction officers demand” a place to smoke. In fact, your headline should have been, “Mike Smith demands a place to smoke.” Clearly, he does not speak for all 120 of his union members.

Oh, and Mike, no one said you had to eat your lunch in the garage - just smoke there. Jill Gallagher Spokane

Event promotes spirit, sportsmanship

Years ago, a group of Lewis and Clark and Ferris High School students decided to organize a friendly competition between the two schools which would promote school spirit and sportsmanship. The idea was to have fun - hence, the humorous trophy of a rubber chicken.

This event has evolved into a “happening” and has spawned similar spirit competitions between other Spokane area schools, which we applaud.

This year’s Rubber Chicken competition was bigger and better. We at Lewis and Clark admired the hard work done by Ferris and were proud of their efforts, just as we were proud of our own. However, we were disappointed with The Spokesman-Review’s approach in the Jan. 25 Our Generation articles because they run counter to everything that this event espouses.

The single most important focus is on good sportsmanship, and without question, behavior by the students at the game was above reproach. The only exception occurred the night before the game when, unfortunately, students responded to last year’s TP-ing of Lewis and Clark by TP-ing Ferris, which led to a broken window. Judges were notified in advance that this had occurred, ensuring that both schools protect the pledge of good sportsmanship.

It’s important to remain true to the original intent of this competition. We should be celebrating our schools’ differences because they bring color and personality to the event. Let’s remember that our goal should not be to tear each other down but to build and to bring out the pride students have in being true to their school. John Hook and Barbara Slaughter Lewis and Clark High School

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Expensive bailout cures nothing

President Clinton’s $47 billion - nee $40 billion - bailout for Mexico likely will have a devaluing, inflationary effect on the dollar, requiring higher interest rates in the United States. Rates only 1 percent to 2 percent higher would be enough to defeat its purpose.

Secondly, Mexican oil revenues as collateral won’t work. Most of Mexico’s oil revenues already are pledged as collateral on higher-priority, previously existing Mexican debt. Mexican oil reserves should be the collateral.

Thirdly, this isn’t merely a $47 billion bailout; that won’t be enough to ensure the stability of the Mexican economy. Without explicit language limiting this to $47 billion, this flawed, precedent-setting bailout mechanism will be used to guarantee much more, if not all, of Mexico’s defaulting debt by U.S. taxpayers, rather than by private investors who want to socialize these market risks without taking their own measured losses.

Mexico has $160 billion in external debt. With extremely high austerity interest rates, Mexican domestic bank portfolios will continue to be destroyed throughout 1995 to the tune of many more billions.

Mexico’s central bank, Banco de Mexico, currently is allowing Mexican banks to draw on its reserves. But it’s only a matter of time before Banco de Mexico requests more guaranteed funds from the United States.

This bailout doesn’t address Mexico’s problems - i.e., already existing inflation of more than 30 percent and an expected purchasing power parity exchange rate of 5.6 new pesos per dollar, not 3.5 new pesos per dollar.

This ill-conceived plan will defeat its own purpose before the end of 1995. Art Cline Spokane

Welfare-cutting will cost us plenty

The portion of the federal budget going to Aid to Families with Dependent Children and the Children’s Nutrition Program is just 3.4 percent. Yet, the current administration proposes to balance the budget by cutting these vital programs.

Not only does this make no sense, but it also is morally absurd.

We, as Americans, rush to the aid of Third World countries to provide for poor, homeless and starving children. Why should we eliminate programs that prevent this from happening in our own country?

The cut in these programs will affect not only the poor but also all children. Not only will our school lunch programs be affected, but even before children reach school, they also will realize great losses. Most family child-care providers immediately will go out of business without the food program subsidies. Remaining programs will have to raise rates (already difficult for many families to pay) by at least $60 per month per child.

Losing the food program will result in the loss of the only financial incentive for family child-care facilities to become licensed. Unlicensed programs put children at risk, with no health or safety regulations and not even a crime history check to assure parents the provider is not a child predator.

It’s time to realize the full implications the “Contract on America” will have on our communities. We can’t afford not to speak out. The price we’ll pay is too high.

That 3.4 percent won’t balance the budget. Loss of these programs will hurt children and families now and certainly will result in far higher costs later on. Nancy L. Gerber, president Eastern Washington Family Daycare Association

Liberals have ruined the country

You whining liberals from Bonners Ferry to Pullman and beyond are bellyaching about losses to conservative sanity in government? Our dollar is worth only 5 cents, someone is held up every 46 seconds, a violent crime is committed every 17 seconds, our jails are full of murderers who have been on death row for decades, and you want this to continue?

Tom Foley never held a job with anyone but the government. He never has known the trials of competitive life, and you call him a great statesman. He still gets our tax dollars at the rate of $10,000 a month in his pension. Wow! Tom said he would come home but now he has a new job with a big law firm in Washington, D.C. More big dollars for Tom.

Grand Coulee and Hoover dams were planned under President Herbert Hoover, not President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Let’s give credit where credit is due.

You blame Ronald Reagan for increases in the national debt, but only Congress can appropriate money. Liberals have had control of Congress 62 of the last 64 years, and it has almost destroyed our great nation.

Maybe you liberals should listen to a few good talk shows to learn just what is going on in the real world. You won’t get it from the liberal news media.

Give Newt (Gingrich) a chance. You might like it. D.G. Quinton Post Falls

Beware balanced-budget snake oil

The Confederate Constitution required a balanced budget and provided for a line-item veto. These things didn’t do the old Confederacy any more good than they will the new one.

Neither the balanced-budget amendment proposed by the speaker from Georgia nor the competing proposal by Rep. Charles Stenholm, D-Texas, deserves to be either passed or ratified because they both fail to address the structural problem disguised as our failure to live within our means.

Genuine federal budget reform would separate accounts into annual expenses and amortized capital expenditures. It is foolish to borrow to pay current expenses; it is wise to borrow and amortize capital investments for homes, school buildings and railroads. Few individuals or companies and no state governments operate with the kind of balanced budget being promulgated for the national government.

Both of these Southerners’ proposals are intended not to balance budgets but to destroy the national government and reduce it to a Defense Department, Social Security Administration and interest payments on the $4 trillion debt run up during the Reagan-Bush era.

If either of these amendments is ratified, governors and state legislatures can get set to receive COD the largest unfunded mandate in history. Charles Potts Walla Walla

While we’re at it, cut state taxes

All this talk by President Clinton and Congress about tax cuts for middle-income families is ridiculous. What good is a lousy little federal tax break going to do if we are just going to turn around and give it to our wonderful state of Washington?

It makes me sick when, every year, our state and local governments can raise our property taxes to whatever they feel our property is worth. Three years ago, our property taxes cost us about $85 a month. In 1995, thanks to our wonderful new reassessment program, our taxes will be about $165 a month. And our state and local governments say they don’t have enough money for new roads, schools and needed improvements? Come on! What is wrong with this picture?

I think we need to take a good, hard look at our local government as well as the federal government. They talk about government waste at the federal level, but what about the waste right here in our own state and county? Are they penalizing us for being property owners? Do they want us to live on the streets?

I won’t even get into our ridiculous vehicle-licensing fees - another scam by our local government. Dale Reynolds Spokane

IN IDAHO

Ignore Chenoweth; protect wolves

Again, U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth presumes to speak for all of the residents of Idaho: “People in Idaho and other affected states are opposed to bringing the wolf back …” (Spokesman-Review, Jan. 27).

I am one resident of 25 years who is not opposed to bringing the wolf back. Rather, I think restoration of the wolf to Idaho and Yellowstone National Park is one of the more glorious things we people have ever done.

Years ago, the government paid hunters to eradicate 100,000 wolves for the benefit of ranchers. Perhaps it is the ranchers who should pay to bring the wolves back to their rightful place. However, whatever the cost, it is worth it to right a wrong.

We will continue to pay for man’s previous mistakes for years - Bunker Hill, Hanford, the dams, clearcuts, etc. Every time a poor rancher loses a cow or sheep to a wolf, the rancher’s name should be publicized. Then all of us who support wolf recovery can send the rancher a dollar and eat beans that day. Janet Callen Coeur d’Alene

Vote to let voters decide

Originally, our mayor opposed the plan to recruit Micron Technology Inc. but favored the big mall. Ten thousand retail jobs looked good! The mayor favored the use of our new, never-tried-anywhere, written-just-forthe-big-mall law allowing a new kind of tax increment financing (TIF).

This provoked more than 1,600 signatures petitioning for a city ordinance (an amendable, repealable ordinance) that would give the taxpayer a say in these huge TIFs.

Instead, the city then sued to deny us the right to vote. Shades of Tom Foley! And like Congress, the city estimated the costs wrong. A $2,000 estimate already has been outspent five times.

Like most here, our mayor now supports Micron. The company’s 3,500 industrial jobs look good. But there’s this pesky $10,000 lawsuit. Three judges into this crazy, stupid lawsuit, we hear - from a judge - that an election “won’t be the end of the world.”

When the Post Falls City Council met in secret to consider a settlement - a deal that would have been constitutional, cheaper than fighting and in the best interest of all the people - the members became petty. Like little kids, they decided to keep fighting. “We can have a petition, too,” and “we can distort facts as well as you” are the new battle cries.

With the compromise that would have removed Ron Rankin from the debate and allowed us to honestly work out the details together rejected by the father-knows-best paternalists who run our city, a “yes” vote is our only hope for a voice. Vote “yes” on Tuesday. Donald F. Morgan Post Falls

I appreciate legislators’ attitude

My hat is off to recently elected state Sen. Gordon Crow, R-Coeur d’Alene, and state Rep. Jeff Altus, R-Coeur d’Alene. Last week, I contacted them concerning amendments I felt were needed on a proposed bill. I was very pleased to hear from both and was impressed by their interest and enthusiasm. James E. Vancho, D.C., P.C. Diplomate of the American Board of Chiropractic Orthopedists

Micron here very mixed blessing

The proposed Micron Technology Inc. expansion deserves your consideration.

How can an increase of 15,000 people improve the situation of overcrowding in our public schools? Will an increase in the tax base cover costs brought about by additional growth? Has the increase in population and services in our area decreased your taxes over the last 10 years? Should public funds be used to subsidize private development? What are the impacts of withdrawing large quantities of water from the aquifer and discharging them into the Spokane River?

If this proposal sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Make your concerns known to Micron and to your local government officials. Jerry Gospodnetich Coeur d’Alene

MILITARY PREPAREDNESS

Beware, our defenses are down

I read and compared with alarm the two articles, “Pentagon takes shots at GOP’s `contract”’ and “Five pregnant sailors removed from U.S. aircraft carrier Eisenhower,” in the Jan. 28 Spokesman-Review.

The first article focused on Defense Secretary William Perry defending our current military status as the “most ready and capable military forces in the world.” Then it went on to lambaste as ineffective any effort on the part of Congress to fund a missile defense system because it would be expensive and unnecessary.

The other article focused on five pregnant women having to be removed and reassigned from the crew of one of our aircraft carriers. Now that it is “touring the Mediterranean and currently at port in Naples,” perhaps we justifiably could rename her “Love Boat II” and start making money on defense cruise lines, rather than continually subsidizing a naval disaster.

If people knew the seriousness of our nuclear missile vulnerability, they would throw a fit. Russian missiles never have been in a more compromising state - and our defense leaders had the audacity to calm us into thinking anti-missile defense is a frivolous waste? Think again.

I suppose with people like Perry and his ilk running the show, we can continue to expect even more outrageous policy. Stay tuned for the next edition of the empty Trojan horse follies, coming to a paper near you. Bob Spaulding Post Falls