Letters for March 21, 2024

Valley council should back SCRAPS

After reading the article “Animal rights advocates prompt Valley to reconsider SCRAPS contract” (March 12) I went online to the Spokane Valley City Council website and read the actual contract. Do Councilman Al Merkel and his Underground Rainbow group really think they can get a better animal control/animal sheltering contract elsewhere?

To create a shelter facility like SCRAPS from scratch would cost millions of dollars. For what they are currently spending for animal control, they would have little choice but to make animal control and dealing with dangerous dogs the job of the sheriff or police department. Instead of threatening the contract and criticizing SCRAPS, the City Council should be very grateful their predecessors had the foresight and good sense to form the SCRAPS regional system.

The City Council would be wise to support the SCRAPS system or be prepared to pay a much higher price. To trash and destroy a well-run, essential service would be fiscal insanity and political suicide.

Chris Bowers

Liberty Lake

Stadium turf needs permanent lines

As a person who worked at Joe Albi Stadium back when it was real grass, then AstroTurf, Superturf, Mount St. Helens ash clean-up and replaced turf, finally Field turf, I was disappointed that football lines are not permanently in the turf at the downtown soccer stadium. Wait until they have to paint them when it’s raining. Was always a problem at Albi.

Wendell Smith

Spokane

Wealthy continue to keep renters down

The bill to protect renters from gouging didn’t die because, as one person said, it’s “anti-landlord.” It didn’t freeze rents, it put reasonable limits on raising rent and deposit amounts. It failed because renters don’t have the money to lobby the way the wealthy do.

David Teich

Spokane Valley

Tax increases need challenge

Oh yes … a new year and a new tax bill with a new Spokane County total property tax revenue bar graph that’s hopelessly flawed and understated. There are 10,000 properties included in the bar graph that do NOT see the many hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars of tax increases the rest of us see.

If one does simple division on the bar graph, tax revenues have gone up 47% since 2019.

But my tax bills for my properties have gone up 150% collectively in five years. Some almost 300%. Where’s that bar graph, Spokane County?

It’s the property tax break for a certain 10,000 Spokane County homeowners who may be low-income senior citizens that skews down the tax increase percentages. Some of those 10,000 property tax bills even went down. Look up your neighborhood.

Meanwhile, low-income senior citizen renters pay the full freight of property taxes through their landlord’s tax bills.

Do I hear a constitutional challenge amassing for this nonsense? There should be.

Mike Reno

Spokane