Letters To The Editor
Letters to the Editor, June 9, 1995: CORRECTIONS A letter attributed to Dale F. Springer on Wednesday’s Roundtable page was written by Dale F. Steadman. In Lauren Rants’ June 7 letter to the editor concerning a photograph of welfare recipients, the letter incorrectly identified the welfare recipients who had a computer at home.
WELFARE
Welfare life is no picnic
Brian O’Kelley’s article on May 31, which stated that people on welfare didn’t deserve soda pop and squirt guns really got to me. Why can’t kids on welfare have the same things that kids not on welfare have? They don’t choose to be on welfare and they go without, not having a choice.> My husband, two kids and I have been on welfare for many years and my kids have had to go without a lot of things. My husband couldn’t take a job for $5 or $6 an hour. Why should he when welfare gave us more money. They also gave us food stamps to eat better, full medical to pay for doctors, medicine, eyeglasses and dental. Most jobs don’t offer that. Fortunately, my husband has found a decent-paying job and within a few months we will be completely off welfare. We’ll be living a much better life.
I will never put people down who are on welfare, they don’t really want to be there. People who don’t know what it is like to be on welfare shouldn’t look down on a mother in the store buying a birthday cake with food stamps; it may be one of the only gifts that child gets. Their children deserve a normal life too. Patty Douglas Mica
Computer didn’t fit stereotype
Regarding the story about welfare recipients (May 28): I am sure that had Ms. Stewart been able to anticipate the negative reaction from the letter writers, she would have replaced the computer with a mop, and her husband’s book with a shovel.
“Will Read for Food” is, after all, a pretty shiftless idea. “Will Mop for Degree in City Planning,” would have been much more pleasant reading; after all, many of us were heading off for church.
It is a real struggle for some to feel superior over others when the others have computers. Lauren Rants Spokane
She wants help, not welfare
During the first years of marriage, I had to turn to public assistance for help. Although I would never want to rely on welfare again, it was very helpful to me at the time.
Almost 20 years later, I find myself divorced, having no job skills and children still at home. Instead of going back on public assistance, (like most people think women in my position live for) I chose to work in my home babysitting. Instead of finding encouragement from the state for trying to be self-sufficient, I find obstacles at every turn.
In order to care for children, (mostly grandchildren) in my home I have to go through an expensive and lengthy licensing process. Now, instead of helping pay for welfare with my taxes, I can go back on the dole and have others pay for me. Child care is a skill that welfare wouldn’t have to send me to school for. It also pays better than the $5-an-hour wage I would make at a fast-food restaurant.
How about some help for a single parent who is trying to make it on her own? Patricia Sampson Spokane
Attitude a slap in the face
The story of Marlene Stewart was incredible. Ms. Stewart collects $1,268 per month from the government (translation: taxpayers).
Combined with the interest from her student loan and the taxpayer-paid medical and dental, she’s collecting more than my gross pay, quite a bit more than my aftertax paycheck.
Ms. Stewart says she needs $13 per hour (roughly $2,300 per month) to make it without public aid.
That’s a real slap in the face to those of us working and making it on a lot less. Maybe I’m a fool for working so hard for so little; but then again, no one looks in my grocery cart to see what I’m spending their money on.
Sadly for people like Marlene Stewart, the safety net has become a hammock, and the taxpayers are waving the fans.
To the taxpayers who don’t want to pay her way in life, Ms. Stewart says, she’s busy “educating” us about poverty, volunteering her time, and raising a family; therefore, we should “walk a mile in my shoes.”
It would be more appropriate if Marlene Stewart would work a mile in boots. Sam Cathcart Spokane
DOWNTOWN
Project will save taxes
I attended a meeting at which the proposed River Park Square project was described and I came away with the feeling that, as a taxpayer, here is a project I must support, if for no other reason than to save myself some future taxes.
There are many other reasons to support the project but tax benefits to the City of Spokane and its citizens from a vibrant downtown is, in my view, the key reason for citizen support for the proposal. Those who argue against tax revenues being spent on the project might better applaud the tax benefits from the project. If the downtown area of Spokane is permitted to fall from grace and the public’s interest, the tax base now being generated downtown will fall accordingly. Someone else will have to pay more, most likely homeowners and neighborhood businesses.
We don’t often have opportunities to embrace a downtown development with win/win potential like the one being proposed. I would hope citizens throughout Spokane will inform themselves about this exciting proposal and then urge the City Council members to take a positive and active role in the effort. I believe most citizens will applaud the final result, I will certainly be one of them. Dale F. Springer Spokane
Problems sprouting all over
So, downtown wants to tax itself. The Valley incorporation has failed a vote how many times and now wants to divide itself into myriad cities and try again? What’s next?
Will Hillyard secede? Will Indian Trail revolt? And where, pray tell, can we put Steve Hasson in as mayor? Sally Hetland Spokane
Public money is not the answer
An advertising supplement in the May 28 paper focused on the need to preserve and revitalize downtown through combined private and public efforts and listed the consequences of allowing it to deteriorate.
Downtown is in trouble. Twenty years ago downtown was the area’s shopping and entertainment destination. Relatively clean and safe, with a great variety of stores, including the Crescent and popular theaters. It attracted people of all ages. Now, many businesses have failed, wariness has replaced security, and much of the area feels grimy and low-tech. Many wonderful old buildings have been allowed to decay instead of being put to use in a vibrant, evolving city.
This has been said before, but cars are a major problem. People who complain about the parking miss the point. Increased use of public transportation alone or combined with satellite parking would alleviate the stress of driving and parking downtown. Unfortunately, parking may be fairly cheap compared with larger cities, but we are used to free parking which is convenient, with easy access and for as long as we like.
I disagree with the idea that public money is the answer. A tenet of free market economy is that people vote with their money and businesses succeed or fail on their merits. Businesses will invest where they can get a reasonable return on their money. In recent years, many have found that downtown locations cannot provide a decent income. Taxpayers should not pay for public life support for downtown. Arthur Lund Spokane
GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS
Detox center is needed
Shutting down the Spokane Care Center is stupid. We need a detox center. These people are sick. Do we want them lying all over our streets.
What authority does City Manager Bill Pupo have? He says the city is not interested in running the center. Yet the city is responsible for a $400,000 loan. It helped the center get started. They should scrape up the money somehow. Maybe by getting rid of some of the managers. It is going to cost them a lot more if they don’t.
It sounds like they don’t know how to handle their money. They claim they need $250,000 to keep going another year. What they need is a budget. They got $780,000, the same amount they got in 1993 and another $300,000 a year from federal grants. I would like to see their books.
The police department needs to spend their time on crime. If the city would quit paying someone from out of town to come in and tell them what to do maybe they could help the sick. Claudia Kampfer Spokane
State needs to tighten belt
In the June 2 paper, Gov. Lowry was quoted as telling state legislators that “some legislatively approved tax cuts may not be prudent given the softening Washington economy.” That is almost an oxymoron.
If a softening economy means fewer jobs, less money for consumers and less purchasing power, how can the taxpayers be expected to maintain the same level of taxation?
If taxpayers do with less income and have to tighten their belts, why shouldn’t the state do the same. There is always something we can do without. A taxpayer with less income has to do so. E.H. Springer Spokane
Democrats backed health care bill
Sunday’s article (May 28) called the health care reform bill unconstitutional and Republican.
Maybe it is, as it forces insurance companies to insure people regardless of health condition. Like insuring the business after the fire.
That part may be unconstitutional, as I don’t believe this country should force any business to operate at a loss.
It was not, however, a GOP rewrite but fully bipartisan vote repealing a totally unworkable 1993 bill. Remember, the governor and the Senate are Democrat and could have repealed it.
Instead, it got overwhelming support from both parties! It creates one that makes a little better sense but still requires insurance companies to insure anyone, even if they already are sick.
Would Frank Bartel like to put his money out to pay for a premature baby or a cancer or AIDS patient? The insurance companies have to, and they agreed to do that as this was what the Clinton Democrats cried they wanted in 1993.
Now that we have what they wanted, someone is going to have to pay for it. You and I - with higher rates and higher taxes.
The bill also expands the state’s giveaway insurance programs for low-income people. We couldn’t give it away before and still can’t get people to insure even when it is almost free. But this is supposedly what the people wanted? Anything the government gives away is going to cost someone a lot of money.
You and I in our taxes!
Bartel calls the bill outrageous. His interpretation is definitely outrageous and should have been edited for accuracy.
I am appalled that Frank quit reporting the news and continues to create his own. That should be unconstitutional! Dick Doty Spokane
OTHER TOPICS
Term limits not the solution
The League of Women Voters would like to thank George Cheek, John Clute and Tom Foley for the risk they took by joining us to support the Constitution of the United States.
As the minority opinion handed down by the Supreme Court on May 22 pointed out, there is popular support for term limits. But the majority opinion makes it very clear that popular opinion is not enough to circumvent the intention of the framers of the Constitution who had debated the option of term limits and ruled it unacceptable.
How can you form a “perfect union” with each state making up their own rules? Frequent elections were the option they chose.
Although term limits is seen today as a means of combating incumbency, the real solution is campaign finance reform. How much time, money and energy are we willing to waste before we seek a real solution to an incumbent’s advantage? Pam Behring, president League of Women Voters of the Spokane Area
We need solutions to violence
I am only 14 years old. A very close friend of mine and one of his friends were severely beaten by a group of guys. My friend suffered three broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder. His friend had a shattered arm. They were merely taking a walk and talking. He was beaten over something that one of the others heard and didn’t like. This is a tragedy that frightens me.
I want to know that I can walk outside my front door without being threatened. As heartbroken as this beating has made me, I wonder what it would have been like if one of my friends was killed. This is not the first time something like this has happened to somebody close to me. There needs to be some kind of action taken to protect innocent people from getting hurt or even killed.
Most people look out their window and see a beautiful sky and a wonderful lawn. Basically, a gorgeous world. When I look out my window I see hate, anger, violence and everything seems harmful and ugly.
We, the people of the world, need to find a way to make things peaceful, so we can walk our streets without fear. I think there is a way to fix this problem. We’re just not looking hard enough. If we look around, we’ll eventually find a solution … a good solution! I’m going to look because I don’t want a family member or friend to go for a walk and get beaten and/or killed. Do you? T.D. Klamm Spokane
Initiative will help homeowners
We support Initiative 650 because: it will cap property tax assessment increases at 2 percent per year; it will roll back property taxes to 1993 rates; it will not apply to special levies and, therefore, does not hurt our schools; and it is not the same as California’s I-13.
Initiative 650 will protect the primary residences of people living in homes acquired before the jump in real estate values. It allows people to plan their housing budget and stay within it until the home is sold, at which time the market value is established. If only government would plan a budget and stay within it! Our property taxes have gone up over 67 percent in the last two years.
There is no reason to believe Initiative 650 will cause a shortage of funds for government. We have had a sizeable increase in population and new homes, broadening the tax base considerably since 1993. Does anyone know how these additional funds are being used? Jack and Colleen Birchill Spokane
Morlin should be ashamed
I felt compelled to respond to the front page article of May 27, by Bill Morlin. After two and one-half years of Bill Clinton in the White House it seems a much more plausible case could be made for the radical left conducting a leaderless coup, but that misses the point. Mr. Morlin’s article is nothing more than ‘90s McCarthyism and its premise is so poorly substantiated it clearly belongs on the editorial page. If during the sixties such an allegation was made about the radical left the likes of Mr. Morlin would have devoted countless columns of print to its derision.
A much more likely theory to describe the random acts Mr. Morlin purports to be a conspiracy is that as the Clinton administration contrives to govern against the will of the American people, as it did in pursuing the overturning of term limits measures to the Supreme Court, the stronger the reaction by random individuals with tendencies to commit desperate acts.
The Clinton administration has shamelessly tried to turn the Oklahoma City bombing for political gain, and Mr. Morlin should be ashamed for being its willing accomplice. Grant Marr Boise
Clarification
A. LaMont Smith of Spokane disputes the editing of his June 3 letter to the editor. In the original text of his letter he wrote that the blame for Washington state prison costs “is not related to prison management, as attributed by him (a Spokesman-Review reporter) to Corrections Secretary Charles Riveland …”