Letters to the Editor:

Tuesday, September 8, 2009 10:12 AM PDT

Jeff Koterba cartoon for 9/2/09 "Marvel"

Health care needs

appropriate changes

Editor,

To Sen. Jeff Merkley:

Sir, I am 84 years old, so what you do to a health care system that won’t be exercising any significant influence on Americans until I’m 90 doesn’t mean much to my body. But what you do to the greatest nation on earth is of highest importance to my children, grandchildren, the rest of the world and, retroactively, to me as a member of the generation that fathered the series of congresses that has shackled liberty and outlawed self reliance.

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The well-being of Americans has never been better served than it is in 2009, though it is probably true that the system of paying for and delivering medical care to individual citizens might be improved. But, you know as well as I do, that such improvement could best be effected by a few changes to existing laws of the land.

We need competition in the health insurance industry. We need less freedom in the legal profession busily extorting money from medical practitioners on behalf of themselves, and, oh yes, their clients. We need more competition among practitioners of medicine, attracting competent people into the profession by spending as much on health care as Americans wish to divert to that segment of the economy.

Changing a few appropriate laws to expedite health care delivery to the deserving impoverished as well as to the rest of Americans will be far simpler than doing the humpty dumpty thing.

Harry Neuwirth

Salem

Idaho residents

important to Malheur County

Editor,

This letter is in response to Farrell Larson’s letter printed Sept. 1: I’m sure you are sincere in your “few observations,” but I don’t think you’ve done your homework when it comes to what Payette County residents’ purchases pay for by shopping in Ontario, and you are the second person that I am aware of to accuse Idaho for your money woes. Perhaps you are not aware of what a sales tax could do for your state. When Idaho residents make a major purchase in Ontario we do indeed pay a sales tax in Idaho for: cars, appliances and furniture. We would prefer to buy in Idaho where the taxation of 6 percent, not 7 percent, is more fair and not solely on the property owners. We in Payette County buy in Ontario because, unless we travel to Caldwell, Nampa or Boise, we have no other place to purchase much of our needs. (How about Oregon residents who buy in Idaho? We don’t complain.)

Have you considered how much money Idaho residents leave in Malheur County? If we all left Ontario stores, your income would be considerably less. Wal-mart and Home Depot, as any other Oregon businesses (or state businesses) do not pocket all that money, they also surely pay a tax on their sales income, much of that comes from Idaho pockets.

Another consideration you might investigate: If the Ontario schools applied for and received “stimulus money,” how would it be spent? To build your two fancy schools? To build more ball fields? To buy more sports equipment? Or to teach math, financial responsibility, reading and English courses, even foreign languages or wood shop classes? Or nutrition? (Shouldn’t parents be teaching their children which end of the hammer hits the nail or which side of the saw cuts the board? I believe a class in morals and etiquette and right from wrong should be included as well as some common sense.)

Joanna Davidson

Payette

Power line plan should lead to trash

Editor,

The public response to Idaho Power’s invitation for comment on the proposed 500,000-volt new transmission line through our area has drawn mostly ridicule and criticism from all I’ve heard. Not in my back yard has been, in essence, the response. So, now what? Go dump on the neighbor, just not on me.

I don’t believe rural Idaho needs or wants more growth. I certainly do not.

A bridge to nowhere didn’t work in Alaska, and neither should it work in Idaho. If Boise, Meridian or Nampa want more people, let them deal with their problem. Build it, and they will come, so the saying goes.

Can I say? We the people, the people in our Nu Acre’s area, generally live here to get away from growth and crowding.

If the power company’s soliciting input from the public is anything more than a charade, maybe they would consider an alternate routing plan that leads to the nearest garbage can.

Orr Kellogg

Parma

Everyone needs to bear the burden

Editor,

When I served on the Ontario City Council a few years back, we proposed a sales tax of 1 percent to cover expenses for the City of Ontario. Some people didn’t try to understand the concept before they campaigned against it.

If the present City Council is so against any type of sales tax in Ontario, then when are they going to rescind the sales tax they imposed on the hotel/motel, bed and breakfasts and recreational vehicle courts? That is a 10 percent sales tax I did not see any of you campaigning against imposing on these folks. I would say the city is discriminating against certain types of businesses.

The present mayor, when campaigning, said Ontario didn’t need any new tax and not from sales tax. He said we might insult some customers from another state. But then you raised my property tax. A group of citizens independent of the city put together the library district and got it passed by voters. The City Council did nothing but let them raise my property tax.

So this council has balanced the budget, found funds to run the city up to a point. Funds from not needing to fund the library helped. You starved the city in the mean time.

Now it is catch up; just look at the golf course. Did we take away funds from water and sewer? This City Council raised my property tax every time it has needed funds. It is the resident property owners that carry the load.

Don’t second guess the street money going into North Oregon; federal or state, it is still taxpayer money. We still have a lot of street work to do.

There are different ways to fund our city, and it needs all the help it can get. A closed mind never achieves anything.

It is estimated that Oregon takes in about $8 billion from tourists. If the state of Oregon rescinded 5 percent of the 9 percent levied on personal income tax, then installed a 5 percent sales tax, the state would gain about $400 million in sales tax revenue residents wouldn’t be paying.

Are we giving up something by not charging a sales tax, or are we just generous?

Now Oregon is going to charge anyone that earns more than $125,000 an 11 percent income tax. They must be crazy. These are the achievers Oregon is penalizing. They are the people who create jobs. They spend years going to college for the monetary rewards. There needs to be rewards in life. Oregon will kill the golden goose. This is why these people move to other states. Large-income retired people live in Florida and Nevada six months and one day each year.

To the City of Ontario and the state of Oregon: You can’t continue to put the burden on the achievers and the property owners. Everyone that uses our system needs to contribute just like we do when we go to other states.

If the City Council wants to clean up Ontario, they should start with the city and state-owned property. Ontario owns more acres than some farms. Do you know how many acres Ontario owns?

Earl Cheatam

Ontario