Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Billboard ban would be costly

I am opposed to the proposed billboard ban. I am well aware of the fact that Commissioner Kate McCaslin has the deciding vote on whether to put a very viable industry out of business in Spokane County. Deciding to ban this business will definitely do the following.

It will put several people out of work.

Local businesses that depend on this type of advertising will also go out of business. This will cost the county millions of dollars, just as the smoking ban fiasco at the fair cost the county money.

It will bring down Spokane’s economy.

It will disable politicians’ ability to advertise their campaign on billboards, which I know all of the county commissioners have done.

It will make Spokane County look like it succumbed to a small activist group whose members don’t have a clue about business anyway.

The commissioners, especially McCaslin and John Roskelley, should expect to lose a lot of votes. The votes are going to come from primarily business people, not the little activist group called Citizens for a Scenic Spokane.

I hope you will think long and hard about your big decision on Nov. 2. Becky A. Bublitz Spokane

Vote against hate with your feet

Re: “Churches plan anti-hatred walk” (Sept. 20).

Spokane-area residents should turn out in force to support the Walk Against Hate Sunday afternoon.

Most of us are embarrassed and thoroughly disgusted with the negative publicity generated by a very small minority of local people. A large turnout would demonstrate that the majority of us do not agree with them.

Walkers will gather at 4:30 p.m. at Temple Beth Shalom, 1322 East 30th, for a brief introduction and then walk downhill to St. John’s Cathedral, 127 East 12th. A short prayer service will end the walk. Supporters not able to walk could attend the opening or closing.

Let’s hope many Spokanites will take a short time out of their week to show support for the Walk Against Hate. Marcia O’Leary Spokane

For now, bench ads, reporting stay

Five years ago, I ran for election to the Spokane City Council and used bus benches as a vehicle to get our message out to the citizens of Spokane. We reported the in-kind contribution on a monthly basis without any complaints or notices of violations from the Public Disclosure Commission.

This election season has produced a complaint concerning these effective bus benches. We will continue to report these in-kind contributions on a monthly basis until the PDC responds to my letter asking for clarification. We have been told by other elected officials that monthly reporting is the practice that others running for office, local and state, have followed without complaints. Clarification is needed for all who accept the challenge of an election and the responsibility of being fair, honest and ethical. Our campaign would never deceive Spokane citizens and we anxiously await clarification of the rules from the PDC. Roberta J. Greene Spokane

More cause to throw the bums out

As could be expected, our current city fathers have jumped on the bandwagon. All someone has to do is mention the words “cut the waste,” and up jumps a plethora of defenders.

It was announced that the brain trust will consider raising taxes on everything they can think of. Why? Because Initiative 695 may pass! Anyone giving odds that if I-695 should not make the grade, they will rescind the new raises? Not me! Even the transit system is crying the blues, all in anticipation of something that has not happened. This is the same transit system that ruins the roads, but thumbed its nose at us when it was suggested STA participate in fixing the streets.

Seems rather odd to me that when the inflation rate is 2 percent the so-called workers on government payrolls get 5 percent cost-of-living raises. Guess it was just them who were affected by the inflation? Having spent 73 years here in Bugtussle, this ought to seal the fate of the incumbents in our upcoming election. Charles E. McCollim Spokane

WASHINGTON STATE

Expect explosion of car sales openings

Supporters of Initiative 695 claim that taking $550 million out of the state budget the first year will have little or no effect on road construction. They say, “Oh, they will find the money for these projects somewhere.”

Where? Do we check the end of each rainbow for that pot of gold? Where is that bottle with the genie in it? Anybody spot that leprechaun lately? We’ll have time to close our eyes real tight and make those wishes as we sit in traffic trying to get home from work.

But there is a bright side. Initiative sponsor Tim Eyman contends that with average savings of $142 on license fees people are going to buy new cars sooner. This will create great job opportunities for laid-off construction workers as well as laid-off police and firemen. They can all go to work selling all these new cars that people are buying. Craig A. Gruenig Spokane

Why a higher tax for costlier car?

Re: Editor Chris Peck’s column of Oct. 3.

I fail to understand how the model of vehicle a person drives relates to the amount of state taxes they should pay.

Peck indicates that drivers of newer cars must be rich and therefore should continue to pay more taxes. He also indicates you should be happy to continue to pay $100 to $300 extra to drive your car because the rich will benefit the most if you don’t.

Compare the $300 savings of a $2,000 monthly income against a $6,000 monthly income. That’s 15 percent of the $2,000 monthly income and only 5 percent of the $6,000. Same $300 but who saved the greater percentage to live on?

My vehicle uses only one space on the same roads used by other vehicles. Why should I pay more? I inspected my vehicle title. Nowhere did it indicate annual income or net worth. That leaves only one conclusion: newer vehicles do not make you rich. Deeper in debt, maybe, but certainly not rich.

Peck worries about the bureaucrats not having enough money to continue their spending spree. Perhaps it’s time to abolish all our current taxes. In their place, install a single tax - a flat tax on every income in the state. At least we would all pay our share, according to actual income, instead of vehicle model.

As Peck pointed out, there is $60 billion in just one household. A 10 percent flat-rate tax on $60 billion wouldn’t be a bad start. Biggest question is, who gets how much? Larry Lockard Spokane

Do as you say, S-R

While Chris Peck’s Oct. 3 editorial against “the rich” and Initiative 695 may be an effective exposition in the politics of envy, as analysis, it’s thin.

The “common good” said to be advanced by the defeat of I-695 is never defined. Peck can’t be bothered to say how he arrived at the nice, round “billion dollars a year” the measure would leave in taxpayers’ pockets. Unmentioned is that the “doing OK majority,” whose interests he fondly imagines himself to be speaking for, now bears the highest tax burden in U.S. history.

But if Peck truly believes in “doing something for somebody” by charging “the rich” more, here are two logical steps he can take:

1. Charge subscribers in more affluent areas more for The Spokesman-Review than is paid by the people “in the middle.” Then The Spokesman-Review will want to lower rates for the latter, right?

2. Change The Spokesman-Review’s automotive ad rate schedule. Currently, rates decline steeply as the length of time the ad runs increases. To conform to Peck’s theory of social justice, reverse that pricing and make ads more costly the longer they are in your paper. That will lead to a sharp increase in revenues.

Actually, why stop there? Just go ahead and make advertisers who want to sell a Cadillac pay twice the rate as those trying to sell a Chevy. Robin J. Corkery Spokane

HEALTH CARE

Put insurers on a short leash

Re: “Bradley puts health care back on table” (News, Sept. 29) Why are none of the candidates addressing the real cause of the problems in America’s health care system?

The reason for ever-increasing costs is the insurance industry. The industry’s only real function is to collect premiums and pay the medical professionals. For this service insurance companies charge about 40 percent! I’m sure the banking industry is green with envy.

This is a parasitic growth of ridiculous proportion. We must either get rid of the insurers with a single-payer system or put them on a cost-plus basis.

A business whose profits grow by denying care to the sick and injured is immoral. Reducing the amount paid to the medical professionals who provide care is almost as disgusting. Those who save, prolong and improve the quality of our lives should be well paid. Thomas S. Lowerison Spokane

Free enterprise is the best medicine

At last, a politician who actually knows what she is talking about and has the courage to say it (Sept. 13).

Cheryl Pflug’s insight into the individual health insurance fiasco in Washington state is remarkable. When will we learn that any time you have a private industry run a program that is in jeopardy of being taken over by the government, we the consumers will lose. Private industry will always be more efficient and consumer oriented than government-run programs (i.e. IRS, post office).

Watchdog entities are always good to have (“20/20,” Consumer Reports, etc.) and keep us informed of problems that arise. Consumers’ choice to purchase or not to purchase is what will keep companies competitive, not some government bureaucrat (i.e. Debra Senn telling health insurance companies what and when they cover and how much they charge). Senn’s game plan for federal-state health care for all appears to be right on schedule, now that all individual private carriers have been forced out of Washington state. All we have to do is look at Canada’s health plan to realize that is the last thing we want.

Pflug has the right idea. Give insurance companies back the 12-month pre-existing condition rule to start attracting back to Washington state high-quality insurance companies. Let them market and service their plans as any other free enterprise company does and see what happens. Let’s let free enterprise work. It’s what built this country, not government entitlements. John R. Reisbig Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

GOP tax cuts worth adopting

Why is it that liberals like Malcolm and Carol Renfrew (Letters, Sept. 30) still can’t get the facts straight about the 1980s and the Reagan administration? The Reagan tax cuts did not cause double-digit inflation or the trillion-dollar debt!

The inflation rate was 11 percent in 1980, and by 1985 it had fallen to below 4 percent. The Reagan tax cuts also resulted in a doubling of tax revenues, from $500 billion to $1 trillion in the 1980s. In my view, increases in the national debt and the yearly deficits occurred because of the Democratic-led Congress, which increased spending substantially.

The problems with Social Security and Medicare are not going to be solved simply by setting aside more money for them. If the American people can’t have a tax cut when there is a surplus, then when can we have one?

The $792 billion GOP tax cut plan, spread over 10 years, amounts to less than 4 cents out of every tax dollar collected. More importantly, in the first few years the tax cuts are imperceptible. Americans’ taxes would be cut by 0.4 percent in 2000, 0.9 percent in 2001, and 1.8 percent in 2002. If anything, the plan is too small. In addition, under the GOP plan, the national debt could be reduced by nearly $2 trillion over the next 10 years.

It is time to stop the revisionist history of the 1980s, tell the truth, and give President Reagan the credit he is due. Edward B. Dennis Spokane

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

We seek better health, not pelf

Thank you to staff writer Zaz Hollander for her professional writing, “Doctors call for better lead studies,” Sept. 30. Most Silver Valley residents would support action for improved testing of procedures to do proper diagnosis and treatment for lead and heavy metal-related illness.

As to malpractice suits, up to now, in Silver Valley neither the People’s Action Coalition nor any of its members have ever threatened local doctors with malpractice suits. A primary goal of the organization, emphasized by Catholic Charities foundations, is to provide the tools of education and facts, for the community to be empowered and be able to address important issues such as lead-affected citizens and cleanup. As far as we’re concerned, this approach will forever be maintained.

This way, accomplishments for improving the quality of life for all people of the Silver Valley with such endeavors as the Community Lead Health Project and cleanup of the Bunker Hill Superfund site will be achieved. Edie Shultz, president Silver Valley People’s Action Coalition, Kellogg

Avid deputy deserves support

Your criticism of Bonner County Deputy Matt Hathaway is totally unjustified. I don’t know him but know that his actions to bring obedience to the law and a safe and sane Priest Lake is fully justified.

Believe it or not, some people think everyone can see in the dark and they therefore have no qualms about floating and moving on the lake in the middle of the night. Obviously, they have no concern for themselves or others when they fail to simply flip a switch and turn on their running lights.

It’s time we had a conscientious deputy who doesn’t care about criticism from bar and resort owners who selfishly try to sell the last drink. You are not doing the sheriff’s department or the law-abiding citizens using Priest Lake any favors with your misguided statements. Claude W. Morris Coolin, Idaho

Most just ignoring Rankin

Fred Glienna’s recent Street Level column stated that Kootenai County Commissioner Ron Rankin was going to close his door to the voters who abstained from voting in his county jail-property tax relief measure last spring. Well, he got it wrong. The proposal was defeated! So he would only be listening to 12 percent of his constituents, the majority of whom were against him.

Makes sense, doesn’t it? Dwight McCain Coeur d’Alene

McCain-bashing beyond the pale

Your Oct. 5 political cartoon showing the Republican elephant dressed in typical North Vietnamese military garb and standing over a Hanoi Hilton-style isolation cell holding John S. McCain is in extremely bad taste. How dare you run a cartoon that makes fun of Sen. McCain’s 5 years as a POW. As the subcaption makes clear, the cartoon is intended to promote the campaign of George W. Bush but this is hitting below the belt. You, sir, owe Sen. McCain, and every other Vietnam POW, a humble, and I mean humble, apology. Barrie MacConnell Coeur d’Alene

Music hath charms …

Music is a highly unique and virtuous thing for one’s personal endeavor. It is one of the most profound forms of expression concerning the condition of humanity’s emotions in its conveyance of every possible manner of feeling.

All of us experience these feelings as a result of the relentless, sometimes pressing issues that continuously exert themselves upon our daily lives. These feelings include love, apprehension, anger, joy, hatred, torment, sensuality, rejection, broken-heartedness and betrayal. How we feel at a certain time may be dependant upon whether we are able to experience an emotionally riveting sense of deep reflection in accordance with a particular song, how we relate to that song and by how it relates directly back to us. Jeremy P. McPherson Coeur d’Alene