No to 206
Re: the Oct. 29 letter “Proposition 206.”
The writer references New Jersey’s recent minimum wage increase. New Jersey voters approved a raise to $12 an hour. Good for New Jersey, however, not so simple.
Tucson is already at $12.15 an hour. Comparing a similar-size city to Tucson, the cost of living in Newark, New Jersey, is calculated higher than Tucson. The writer says we can do better. I say we are already doing better. I cannot think of a worse time to raise the minimum wage. This would impact primarily locally owned small Tucson businesses attempting to rebound from this last year-and-a-half of pandemic life filled with anti-business restrictions. Tucson must become more business friendly! Why not revisit this issue in a year or two. No to 206.
Robert Snellstrom
East side
On what lawmakers should do
It is so sad that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has been vilified for doing what lawmakers are supposed to do, working across the aisle. Doing the right thing isn’t always stylish. Keep up the good work, Senator!
Scott Thompson
East side
Lies about President Biden and the border
Re: the Oct. 17 article “Immigration words and pictures.”
Cal Thomas discusses a supposed “Biden administration’s refusal to enforce the law and secure the border.” Has Biden disbanded the Border Patrol? No! Border Patrol reports that arrests on the Mexican border for fiscal year 2021 are the highest ever through September 2021. Biden is also still using Trump’s public health order under Title 42 to quickly remove migrants.
Thomas resembles Trump in pushing another Big Lie. The border is more complex than Thomas and other demagogues want us to believe. I believe there would be no violent cartels and fewer refugees without American demand for drugs. Guns that cause mayhem in Mexico come from the U.S. due to our refusal to link gun rights to gun responsibilities. I could mention more factors.
Thomas offers no real solutions. We cannot just enforce or wall ourselves off from the problems of our hemisphere and the world, as shown by the spread of COVID.
Ronald Pelech
Midtown
Stepped-up basis
Re: the Nov. 1 article “Tax reform doesn’t need to be this messy.”
The article suggests that a simple way to raise revenue would be to eliminate the stepped-up basis on inherited assets. Is this indeed the case? As I understand it, asset appreciation from its purchase to inheritance is taxed by the estate tax. The basis is then stepped up to this new value for the new owner of the asset, and capital gains tax uses this new basis when the asset is sold. It does seem, however, that capital gains taxes could be simpler by stepping up the basis based on inflation from the purchase time (whether this is the original purchase or an inherited stepped up basis) to the sale time, then taxing the resulting “real gain” as ordinary income. This would increase revenue since the current maximum capital gains tax rate is 20% while the maximum marginal tax rate on ordinary income is 37%.
Harold Hallikainen
East side
What do the political parties stand for?
The Republican Party stands for racism and repression. The Democratic Party stands for decency and democracy. In Congress, voting rights and women’s rights are being destroyed by the Republican Party.
Contrast that with President Joe Biden, and his self-deprecating manner during a recent CNN town hall. He and the majority of the Democrats in Congress are fighting for the very rights the other side is trying to weaken and destroy. The problem in our country is that the Democratic Party has no clue how to sell its commitment to decency and democracy. The other party not only owns repression and racism they know the only way they can regain power is to repress the vote and appeal to their white base.
James Robinett
Southwest side
Trump was the end for me
Re: the Oct. 5 letter “Freedom to Vote Act un-American.”
The letter writer makes some rather provocative statements. I have a few questions for him.
Do you really think this is a time when the assaults on our Constitution are greater than in the Civil War?
I agree Sen. Mitch McConnell has packed the Supreme Court with his ideological friends thereby destroying its credibility. Or perhaps you were referring to something else?
The filibuster, as currently configured, prevents any discussion of the issues. Is this because all ideas are bad? And who exactly proposes scrapping the whole Senate?
The Freedom to Vote Act is hardly a “totalitarian-style top-down system.” It does, however, limit the choices states can make. If we are, in fact, “one nation” isn’t this necessary?
You got the Senate. You got the electoral college. You got gerrymandering. I was willing to “stay the course,” in spite of these inequalities, until Trump. No more.
Steven Brown
Midtown
Tucson could easily become Phoenix
Re: the Oct. 29 article “Keep Tucson from becoming Phoenix.”
Big thanks to Brent Harold for pointing out so eloquently the obvious fact that if we keep growing, we’ll be just like that behemoth up the road from us. I grew up in Phoenix in the 50s and 60s when it was still livable, spent my teaching career in a small New Mexico town, and retired to Tucson in 1997. My sister made a wonderful observation when she was visiting from California about 10 years ago. After driving around town, she said, “I like Tucson because it doesn’t pretend it’s not in the desert, like Phoenix does.”
But Mr. Harold is correct that Tucson is sprawling up into the foothills. The same happened to Camelback Mountain in Phoenix until the city council put a stop to it. Dear Edward Abbey famously said that uncontrolled growth is the philosophy of the cancer cell. We all need to heed Mr. Harold’s words!
Aston Bloom
East side
