Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Freeway poor excuse for a legacy

Can we afford the north-south freeway? The Washington state Department of transportation estimates the cost of the whole project as just under $1 billion (1999 dollars) spread out over 20 years.

Current available funds are not in place to link the planned project to Interstate 90. Completion of the project could run as high as $4 billion. What happens if, for whatever reason, the funds are not made available? We will end up with a partial freeway dumping traffic back into the city arterials. With this money, the community could probably have a free bus system with door-to-door service and a truck bypass route.

A few people in Spokane in the 1970s had a vision that brought this community Expo ‘74 and its resulting legacy to downtown: Riverfront Park. Where are Spokane’s visionaries today?

Spokane is still quite distinctive in having some greenbelts and rural areas close to town. A freeway, as planned, would destroy many neighborhoods and further urban sprawl, resulting in a great loss of one of our best natural resources: open space.

Our city could be in a unique position of doing something different and not repeating the land destruction that other communities are stuck with. Building more roads to serve more cars is an outdated, short-term solution to transportation issues.

A road is not much of a legacy to leave future generations. Larry Rees Spokane

Ah, the old do-as-I-say approach

Recently, there was an article in the paper about the possibility of a light-rail system running through the Spokane Valley. In this article, there was a quote from Spokane County Commissioner Kate McCaslin saying she would never ride a bus but she might consider a light rail.

In Sunday’s paper on an article about the STA, of which McCaslin is a board member, she says, “You have to give the changes time. It’s far less of a drop than we anticipated. We went into the change thinking we’d see a substantial drop.”

Ah, McCaslin, if you’re going to attempt to sell a commodity to the public which you publicly say you will never use, where is your credibility? Grace E. Bostrom Spokane

WASHINGTON STATE

Piece work pay for these slackers

Hurray for Rep. Brad Benson, for saying what every nonunion worker (and a few union) is thinking. I wish I had a job that pays me more and more each year as I jump through a few hoops on my way to a “higher” plane of pompous arrogance. Only in the modern union America do people get rewarded for getting second-to-last out of industrialized nations in test scores.

If the teachers want to be real socialists, they have two options. One is let the upper tier teachers take a pay cut to rescue their poor, downtrodden comrades. Or, they can ask for something more than a monstrous 15 percent increase. If today’s union hack is so virtuous and noble, shouldn’t they have equal pay to those who are equally noble-minded?

I’ve got an idea! Let’s pay all teachers $100,000 per year and deduct fees for any student that gets less than an A. A grade of C would require a larger penalty and so on down to an F (refer to the decimal system if you are younger than 30).

I dream of the accountability it would provide parents. However, I forgot about one dirty litte secret of the teachers’ union grade inflation. I know it is a rarity among the prized teachers of the famed Spokane area, but how many of you have fudged a grade a litte bit higher so Johnny the Troublemaker won’t be back in your class next semester?

Not me, say I. Pass the condoms, please! Brendon K. Hill Spokane

Good teachers deserve better pay

Re: pro-con editorials, April 9.

Washington school teachers are not asking for a pay raise because Seattle has a high consumer price index. They are asking for it because most of them deserve it. They have been losing ground financially for years.

Most teachers are very good, but I do think not all teachers deserve a pay raise. Why should one teacher who works very hard and who brings interesting ideas into the classroom be paid the same as a teacher who just gives three assignments and only requires two to be turned in during a term? Both of those teachers I described are real people; one gave his all, one gave very little. They retired last year and need to be replaced by good teachers.

Every year, one of my classes at Cheney Middle School receives a student teacher. New talent wants to break through the doors but teaching must pay enough to keep good teachers.

Washington state schools are some of the best - certainly not the best, but getting closer. Academics have improved even though salaries haven’t. Jenaline Pyle, age 14 Spokane

Non-teaching staff deserves raise

Teachers are not the only ones asking for a raise. The people who assist in your children’s classrooms, clean the schools, drive the buses and work in the office are hoping for a raise, too.

We do not get regular raises. In fact, we get a raise at five, 10 and 15 years only unless the Legislature decides to increase our pay. This year, I received my five-year raise, which was eight cents.

Most people working in the private sector receive an annual cost-of-living allowance. We do not. We also do not get paid during Christmas and spring break, nor do we get paid during the summer. We are also not allowed to draw unemployment during this time. Can any of you afford to go three months without a paycheck?

We need a substantial raise to catch up with inflation. The 2 percent proposed by Gov. Gary Locke will not make much of a difference. Please support us in our efforts and contact your legislators and ask them to support a decent raise for public school employees. Beth A. Hall Newman Lake

Support Initiative 695

Next year, I’d like to pay just $30 to license my car and motorhome. Wouldn’t you? With license tab fees and other taxes as high as they are today in Washington state, we need any relief we can get. We have to start somewhere to try and cut these exorbitant taxes, and I see Initiative 695, the $30 license tab initiative, as a good place to start. Join me in signing I-695 to get it on the ballot and then vote for it in November. Patricia Carlock Spokane

BUSINESS AND LABOR

And so, Avista can forget rate increases

A front page article on April 8 describes the pay scale for the Avista’s new CEO, Tom Matthews. He’s receiving an annual salary of $750,000 and was given a $1 million cash signing bonus plus $2 million in stock. This is a $200,000 increase in salary over his predecessor and far exceeds any previous bonus.

As we all know, the “invisible hand” of Adam Smith’s capitalism rewards individuals for their performance and could never be manipulated by unscrupulous individuals. It’s therefore obvious, from this enormous increase in compensation, that Matthews will turn Avista into a shining example of corporate efficiency. The board of directors (high-paid CEOs themselves) have great confidence in him, otherwise, why would they give this new CEO such a large compensation package? I’m sure the fact that Matthews might end up on other corporate boards, where he’ll help determine other CEOs’ salary, has no effect on the Avista board’s compensation decision.

Avista is asking the Idaho Public Utilities Commission for a 15 percent rate hike for private residences in Idaho. Avista stated that this rate hike has nothing to do with the new executive compensation levels. We know corporations never lie.

We should show our support for this new executive who’s earning $18,000 per work day. Give him a chance to show the region that he’s worth every penny of the millions he’s pulling in from ratepayers. We ratepayers are confident Matthews can make production costs drop.

The Idaho Public Utilities Commission wants your opinion. Call 1-800-432-0369 and demand that no rate increase is necessary. Paul N. Valanoff Moscow, Idaho

Now we see where dividends went

I have been reading with a great deal of interest about Avista and its new CEO.

First, there’s the salary of the new CEO, which seems to me to be very high, since the first thing he did was to cut the dividend the shareholders received. No man is worth that much money. But since he receives such a huge salary, he should buy stock from the shareholders for what it was worth when he assumed his present overpaid position. It also seems to me that Avista has a lot of money for everything from A to Z, except the shareholders. Virgil Cromer Genesee, Idaho

Maybe Avista can afford picnics again

I was so happy to read that Tom Matthews, CEO of Avista is receiving a cool million. It will now be possible to buy some hot dogs and ice cream for the employees to resume the annual company picnic that Paul Redmond discontinued some time ago for lack of funds. It’s the least he can do after the big cut the stockholders suffered. Lorelle Pederson Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

Kevorkian sentence really slays me

When I read about the sentence Judge Jessica Cooper gave Jack Kevorkian, the lilac bush in my front yard burst into flames and the ashes drifted over the junk cars, the kitchen sink and the old bathtub I placed there so the hillbillies down the street would not think I was getting uppity.

A voice thundered from above, “Write to her; give her my e-mail messages. I can’t quite get through.”

“Nnnot me,” I replied. “I have a sppeech imppediment and ppeople will think I’m nnuts.”

“Write to her,” thundered the voice from above, “or I will dry up your freaky luck.”

This is the only reason I am writing:

And the moon and stars rose up in the Eastern sky and cast their light on the small bands of simple suffering humanoids below. They were totally consumed by their own needs and beliefs. Then, as they are now, clutching their beliefs unto themselves as a shield to protect them from their fears and as a sword to defeat all those who were different and remained in their path.

The moon and the stars moved in the same predictable patterns over the skies and the simple suffering humanoids moved around and around in the same small, predictable circles.

The wise men saw this and hid in the caves of the Holy Lands and in the crypts beneath Rome. One wise man stood up for what he believed was right and he will dwell in a cell in Pontiac, Mich.

Judge Jessica Cooper, let Jack’s people go. Spare them the suffering that life can bring. Help him lead them out of Egypt and into the promised land. Iris J. Byrne Kellogg, Idaho

Bartel’s point well taken

If the criterion is substance, then Associate Editor Frank Bartel’s column, “My news isn’t pretty,” is first-class journalism.

The old-style hard-news reporting of stating the facts and telling it straight has been updated to what he calls the “boutique print journalism” being fed to us in “packaged, predigested, simplified, magnified and glorified pap.”

Incidentally, his critique of current news reporters in modified form points to “other greats” who are part of the dying breed in the classics arena: preachers, teachers, doctors, entertainers, athletes - to mention a few.

But, not to worry. In the world of reporting, the good news is that whether graphics or substance is the standard used by reporters, invariably, there will be readers who will continue to sift through and discern the facts to form their own opinion and interpretation.

And the accomplished reader will never come up short in securing good material. Example: the treasure hunt leading us to Bartel’s column! Connie J. Pomeroy Spokane