Look at the long haul, reject Proposition 123
As a retired educator with 37 years experience, I urge you to vote “no” on Prop. 123. Our Legislature denied a voter-approved inflation increase, refused a court order to pay schools that money, and now wants to take money from the state land trust, primarily earmarked for education, to fund education. Rob Peter to pay Peter? Ridiculous.
Approving Prop. 123, supported by Gov. (Doug) Ducey and “led by the Paradise Valley-Scottsdale crowd” (Tim Steller, Star) comprising big money, is like applying bandages to a patient when surgery is required. Prop. 123 is even opposed by the League of Women Voters, a respected nonpartisan organization.
Voters, be patient regarding upcoming court decisions and elect pro-education lawmakers. Teachers and their supporters, perhaps peaceful statewide civil disobedience in the future, would help fuel change.
Please consider Arizona’s educational needs over the long haul, and vote “no” on Prop. 123.
Ron Locher
Oro Valley
‘No’ on Prop. 123 won’t chasten lawmakers
Thank you to the Star for making it clear to readers that voting against Prop. 123 doesn’t teach legislators in Phoenix a lesson but only hurts educators in Tucson. We have spent years fighting for higher pay to stop the tide of teachers and staff leaving our classrooms and schools.
Many people forget that Prop. 123 is on the ballot because we fought the state in court for five years for inflation money for our schools. Let’s vote “yes” on Prop 123 for our teachers, staff and students, and then invest more money to bring our state competitive in education funding.
Kat Pivonka
Catalina
Tell Ducey, legislators to support the arts
The anti-arts Arizona House of Representatives and
Senate will be voting on the proposed 2017 budget, a budget put together by our “smaller government” Republican leaders. Unfortunately, this budget does not include any funding for the Arizona Commission on the Arts (ACA), an agency that grants its budgeted money to arts organizations statewide, primarily, nonprofits.
It is crucial that we send a message immediately to Gov. (Doug) Ducey, Speaker of the House David Gowan and Senate President Andy Biggs letting them know how important it is to the public that the state budget include funding for the ACA, money used to support arts organizations all over the state.
Failure to allocate the money will mean that this is the second year in a row that the arts commission will received no money from the Legislature. Corporations get tax breaks; the arts, nothing. ACA simply cannot properly do its job without this important state funding.
Flood the emails: http://azgovernor.gov/governor/form/contact-governor-ducey
Sheldon Metz
Northeast side
State GOP, utilities form anti-solar alliance
Re: the April 28 article “New measure means separate electricity rates for solar users.”
Of all the states in our country, Arizona clearly would benefit most as homeowners adopt solar energy. On the cusp of expansion of solar, reactionary forces in the Legislature are buying into a corrupt scheme to kill solar.
Arizona power companies spent between $3 million and $6 million in the last election to gain control of the Arizona Corporation Commission, which is about to rule on an industry initiative to virtually close off future solar expansion by homeowners.
Now they’ve pulled an end run around the ACC with industry-proposed legislation approved by reactionary state legislators on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The alliance between the power companies and state Republicans shows just how much money can buy, including plans to submit alternative propositions in the fall to confuse voters about a citizens’ initiative that would preserve our right to adopt solar.
Boyd Bosma
SaddleBrooke
Foreign-policy talk by Trump was a joke
Re: the April 28 article “Trump tones it down; Cruz selects veep.”
An honor student at Tucson’s Basis High School could deliver a more serious, sensible and coherent American foreign-policy speech than Donald Trump just did.
What is frightening is not just that Trump gave it, but that he and his advisers thought it had any relevance to the real world and that it would prove his knowledge of issues.
It is not even that he badly mispronounced Tanzania, a simple word that a “C” student at Basis would get right, but that he showed no sense of what diplomacy is or that complex international questions require more than little slogans and simple declarations.
What is additionally appalling is that Republican leaders, except Mitt Romney, have shown no willingness to say what they must see in Trump’s continued bluster.
You don’t need to be a Republican to ask how Gov. Doug Ducey or Rep. Martha McSally intend to vote at the Republican convention. Silence now is effectively support for a dangerous man then.
Norman Sherman
East side
