Letters for Sunday, Sept. 28

School and parks votes are a no-brainer

Spokane is a great community in large part because of its schools and parks. I’m an alumnus of Jefferson, Sac and LC as well as Comstock and Manito parks. I sometimes reflect on my belief that many of the things that worked for me as an adult trace back to those places – friends, teachers and experiences. After college and a few years living elsewhere, I returned to Spokane to raise my family and establish a career. Years later, now I want the best for my grandkids.

The two Together Spokane ballet initiatives, if passed, will significantly improve our schools and parks, which, in turn makes Spokane an even better place to live and raise our kids (and grandkids). It’s a no-brainer to me, but I do hear concerns about the tax cost. If that is you, I suggest viewing this as an investment, not an expense. Most things we spend $5 or $10 a month on are consumed and gone on the same day. Here, everyone pays a small amount of property tax for long-term improvements in our community. The “return” on our investment isn’t just the physical improvements. Those will look great and make Spokane more attractive. The real benefit is the enhanced experiences for kids and families that come from learning and recreating in those places.

Is there a better investment? Vote “Yes” on both opportunities.

Rick Betts

Spokane

Together Spokane leverages schools and parks to the max

As a past park board member (13 years) and with a past career in educational planning (mostly K-12 schools), I see huge community benefit in Together Spokane, the unique partnership between our park system and our public schools. Together Spokane addresses the core needs of parks and schools, but it also blends overlapping facilities and programs in many expansive, complementary and cost-effective ways.

Our community has a rich legacy of investing in its quality of life. Together Spokane is a worthy upgrade in that tradition. Historically parks and schools have had missions with many parallels — but programs and facilities in separate silos. Together Spokane breaks out of those silos with a collaboration that exponentially expands the community benefits.

This is a synergy of good government and good public service. Its benefits spread broadly to every corner of Spokane. It has attracted endorsement from the full spectrum of conservative and progressive leadership. Outside private organizations also see the potential and have eagerly pledged investment in facilities and program uses. The positives just keep coming.

We have developed terrific parks and outstanding schools — in isolation. It took Together Spokane’s courage, creativity and lots of hard work to reach out and find meaningful integration potentials between parks and schools — and leverage them to the max.

Together Spokane is ready-made to make our community even better. It deserves our support. It’s a win for schools, a win for parks — and most importantly — another big win for Spokane’s quality of life.

Steve McNutt

Spokane

Park levy money will stay in the parks

As past president and chair of the Park Board’s Finance Committee, I want to address the voter concern that approving the November parks levy will result in Spokane’s administration taking the money and using it for their political priorities. This repeatedly appears as an excuse to vote no this November.

Before 1907, the Parks Department was governed by a Town Hall committee consisting of the mayor, council president and the city engineer, who determined how funds were spent. A group of civic leaders, determined to remove Parks from city government control, pushed for a charter amendment to establish an independent volunteer park board. The voters of Spokane approved this May 5, 1907, resulting in control of Parks moving from City Hall to 10 volunteer community members. The powers assigned to the Park Board in Article 5 of the City Charter were designed to keep fiscal control apart from political interference. Charters are considered the city constitution and can only be changed by initiatives approved by Spokane voters. Fiscal control of Parks will remain free of political allegiances as long as the current charter remains as approved by earlier voters.

The Park Board fiscal authority has been challenged by political officials wanting a board that would align with their own political agendas, but thanks to the diligence of our 1907 voters their attempts have been unsuccessful. Funds approved by the November initiative will remain in Parks and guided by community input from Parks Master Plan. Nov. 4 Together Spokane: Vote Yes Parks, Yes Schools.

Bob Anderson

Spokane

2026 city budget

The city of Spokane is facing a $13 million budget deficit and is on the hook for about $100 million over the next five years for a new emergency dispatch center. Mayor Brown is excusing the deficit on policy coming out of the federal government.

In 2024, the “Public Safety Initiative” passed generating $7.7 million annually. A portion was dedicated to additional police officers including seven NROS but only three have been hired. Are the streets of Spokane safer than one year ago? I manage over 20 commercial properties in the city, and I have seen increased lawlessness and illegal drug use.

The 2026 budget season is here and it’s time for the citizens of Spokane to ask questions. The first question I would like to ask council is regarding their high number of city council employees leading to an out-of-control salaries and wages budget. Just over a decade ago, there were 13 people working in the Spokane City Council office at a cost of less than $1 million. Today, the number of full-time employees is up to 21 with the adopted biennium budget of $4.9 million in salaries, wages and benefits, just for City Council. This represents an increase of over 200% in just over a decade.

The council is the legislative body but is acting like a shadow government. It is difficult to say the work product coming out of the City Council is any better with the bloated budget.

Chud Wendle

Coeur d’Alene

Misdirection by Baumgartner won’t save rural hospitals

As someone who depends on my local rural hospital, I read Congressman Michael Baumgartner’s Sept. 23 letter to RFK Jr. and Dr. Oz with shock and disgust. The letter claims to support rural health, but it is clearly written to set up a blame game. He wants Democrats in Olympia to take the fall when our rural hospitals close.

Baumgartner knows what’s coming. The so-called Rural Health Transformation Program he now praises won’t keep a single emergency room open. The money can’t be spent on patient care or salaries, and he knows it—he wrote the bill. It’s tied up in pilot projects, training schemes, and bureaucratic hoops. Spread across fifty states over five years, the dollars left are far too small to make a difference here.

What makes this galling is Baumgartner’s own statements, which he now tries to rewrite. On July 8, 2025, he appeared in a press release crowing about H.R. 1, which at the time he called the One Big Beautiful Bill: “The signing of the One Big Beautiful Bill isn’t just a win for President Trump…it’s a victory for every American… I’m proud to have helped pass these historic, common-sense reforms…”

Now he calls it the Working Families Tax Cuts and pretends it will save rural health. We’re not fooled. And we won’t be fooled when our hospitals start closing and he blames Democrats in Olympia for the damage he has done.

Elisanne McCutchen

Springdale

Impact of the new federal budget

It’s come to my attention that lots of people don’t know the impact of the new federal budget on our way of life.

The upshot of this budget is that Medicaid is being cut horrendously so that millionaires/billionaires can have huge tax breaks. Middle-class and low-income folks will bear the brunt of this catastrophe by losing income and by paying higher taxes. Some clinics in the Northeastern U.S. have already had to close because they are no longer funded by federal monies, which they depend on. Many of the hospitals and clinics in Eastern Washington are also in danger of closing.

Where will people go when their local hospital closes for lack of funding? Will they have to travel dozens or hundreds of miles to city centers to receive health care?

Mr. Baumgartner voted for this budget earlier this year. I think he knew the outcome to the rest of us that would bring! This budget needs to be changed! Medical care and increased insurance costs need to be kept in check!

Leigh Ost

Spokane