Letters and comments for August 20, 2009

Oregon 30th in tax burden

To the Editor:

Lyle Schwarz’ figures about taxes in Oregon tell us a lot more about him than they do about the state. The most recent figures for states from the U.S. Census Bureau, from 2005, show us ranked 30th in per capita tax burden. That’s not even halfway up the pack. That is the right way to measure them, not in isolation.

Take the total taxes paid in the state and divide that by the number of residents. We don’t pay any sales tax at all and our property taxes are capped. Is he suggesting that we not pay any income tax either? That’s another question, one about services, not one about the tax burden. We either want state roads, wildlife and fisheries management, an educational system, health care for children and other state benefits or we don’t.

As it is we’re finding it hard to compete with states that are willing to fund their universities at higher levels. The future is in an educated work force and I’m willing to pay for it. If Lyle wants to start a discussion about that I’ll be glad to participate. But per capita taxes in Oregon are lower than most other states. Nothing to see here.

Norm Cimon

La Grande

A win-win for LMS, library

To the Editor:

In October, students from La Grande Middle School will be contacting friends, neighbors and relatives to offer them an opportunity to subscribe to a wide selection of over 750 magazines.

Each year LMS sponsors a magazine drive as its only fundraiser. Students can earn prizes for selling, and the school receives 40 percent of the sales proceeds to use for new equipment such as computers. It is a win-win for everyone.

For several years, I have promoted a three-way partnership with LMS, Cook Memorial Library and the public. What I have proposed in the past is that you and I purchase a magazine for the library from the magazine drive. (This is in no way intended to interfere with the students and their sales.) In the past years, this has resulted in a donation for the library of five magazines that it would not have previously had available.

It has worked well for the middle school in that it increased its sales; for the library in that it had more magazines; and for you, a double benefit, in that you made a charitable contribution to the library and have a magazine you enjoy available at the facility.

The other day I was approached by my contact at the library to let me know that this year it is especially crucial that patrons of the library be involved with this partnership. The budget has been cut, and the money for the library to purchase magazines is more limited. Several favorites are going to be leaving the library shelves if they do not receive some assistance.

Although the magazine drive is to take place the first half of October, it would be beneficial to all if you could come into the library to make your donations as soon as possible so plans could be made. There will be a catalog of available magazines to order, forms for you to complete and someone at the library to happily assist you. The library will then complete the circle by placing an order with LMS.

Ginny Mammen

La Grande

Not taught consequences

To the Editor:

Regarding the letter from Christine Aldrich of North Powder: I don’t believe the spectators were disrespectful, I believe they were never taught the possible consequences of the first or the second World War, or the Korean War or the Vietnam conflict.

Our educational system has failed if young people do not have a sense of how tenuous our democracy is, nor how much we owe to those who have fallen in battle for our freedom. Today’s young people do not realize how close we came to not being a democratic republic, nor do they understand what it might be like to live under a monarchy or dictatorship.

My two grandchildren will suffer from lack of adequate education unless their parents and I can instill in them the need to continue their learning after public school. School has not outfitted them to deal with life in a world of international conflict, mortgages, health, credit and child rearing.

I don’t feel shame for those who did not rise for the flag, I feel shame for us. We let it happen.

Michael Bell

La Grande

Silent majority awakens

To the Editor:

The ongoing debate over health care and, more importantly, the debate about the level of government intrusion and control over our private lives and private businesses is most welcome and long overdue. At this point, no one knows the outcome. The silent majority has awakened for the first time in years and the politicians are reacting badly.

An even more pressing situation is facing this same formerly silent majority and that is the slow death by strangulation this nation is facing at the hands of the environmental movement in this country. The reason this country is the world’s largest debtor nation is because we produce nothing. We are rich in natural resources, timber, minerals and oil. We can out-manufacture any nation in the world, and the only reason we aren’t doing so and are in a financial disaster can be traced directly to environmental rules and regulations that don’t allow extraction of natural resources and rules designed to prohibit businesses from making a profit thereby forcing them to go elsewhere.

Until an outcry against the environmental movement at least as large as the outcry against government intrusion into our lives occurs, we will continue being a debtor nation and finally just another Third World nation.

Paul Morehead

Joseph