Money surplus suggestions
If half of the state surplus would be used to pay some of rural and urban cities’ Public Safety Personnel Retirement System (PSPRS) liability, it would be a huge economic stimulus throughout the state. Bisbee has an unfunded liability of $20 million-plus. Debt service takes about $1.7 million of our $8 million general fund budget this year. If paid off, potholes would be filled, aging city vehicles and equipment could be replaced and people hired to better service our population. In short; a huge stimulus. And if that were done for other cities, that money would be multiplied many times over for businesses and workers.
Bisbee is not alone. In coming years there will be bankrupt cities because of PSPRS.
In the long-term, there is no need for two retirement systems costing taxpayers big money. The only true nonpiecemeal pension reform that makes sense, is to abolish PSPRS, protect those pensioners while bringing new money from the currently employed into the Arizona State Retirement System (ASRS).
Fred Miller
Bisbee
American rights
The original Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 asserted if you were an American you had a right to an abortion. It didn’t matter if you were from Arizona or Utah. You were an American. You had that right. The Supreme Court apparently wants to change that. Where you live is the key variable now. Their argument is an obvious legal trick. Which is fine. They’re lawyers, what else would you expect? What’s disappointing is what a bunch of babies the Supreme Court has become. Abortion is a national issue. It affects people the same way no matter where in America they live. Washing their hands Pontius Pilate-style — “Let the Pharisees in Phoenix decide” — that’s a cop out.
Walter Ramsley
East side
Lesher not to blame
Re: the April 30 article “Huckelberry saga leaves black cloud.”
Pima County Supervisor Steve Christy’s op-ed stated County Administrator Jan Lesher is “duty bound to carry on Huckelberry’s policies, procedures and managerial style.” Lesher’s experience as former chief of staff for the Department of Homeland Security required that she have the utmost integrity and sound decision-making abilities to keep our nation safe.
As a retired county employee with 26 years of service, I understand there are many reasons Christy didn’t know about Huckleberry’s retirement, the least of which is the county’s 1990 noninterference clause. This clause requires all information provided to the board come through the administrator or his designee.
For years, department directors drafted critical information for the board. Huckelberry decided what to share and what to withhold.
Huckleberry went alone to HR to make retirement arrangements. He instructed them to tell no one. It is likely he didn’t tell Lesher.
Huckelberry’s actions do not negate Lesher’s experience, integrity and ability to make sound decisions.
Laura Hagen Fairbanks
West side
Parental permissions
When my youngest child was approximately 6 years old, his teacher assigned all students to watch “Roots.” I did not believe the mini-series produced in early 1977 was appropriate for a 6-year-old child. I went to the teacher and received permission for my child not to participate in the assignment. Perhaps when a parent believed an issue was inappropriate for their child, they went to the school and asked for their child to be excluded; it would be a better solution than pressing the school to eliminate the subject to “all” students. Parents should take care of their children and not force their beliefs on the entire school.
Sandra Fatovich
East side
Abortion ban
No matter how many federal and state draconian bans are passed, abortions will still happen. They just might not be safe and women will die. They will be of all political parties and religions. Because desperate women will do desperate things.
Perhaps, if this ban passes, the Democrats in Congress should push through a bill requiring castration of all the fathers of the resulting unwanted zygotes. Condoms are cheaper than the pill and do not require a prescription.
In this time of global overpopulation and global warming, women who choose to abort should be given our thanks, a financial reward and a tree planted in her name.
Eleanor Soler
East side
God not same for everyone
Please don’t quote the Bible as the word of God. It clearly was written by men. Many of these may very well have been under the influence of the Claviceps purpurea. Some of us believe it is not possible for any man to truly know the nature of God or what “its” intent is. The fact that we get quoted Bible scripture as proof is just circular logic that supports itself. Like the idols of old with clay feet. My personal belief is that organized religion isn’t about the belief structure so much as it is about politics. A political system based on ultimate authority without accountability. It is therefore vitally important that a political system which requires accountability be protected from one which seems to be more self-serving than connected to God. The world has plenty of theocracies already. If you wish to live in one, then please go to one, but don’t pollute our country with your religion.
Dan Pendergrass
West side
The difference the gun makes
Editor: Can reporters please stop calling mass shooters “gunmen”? That makes it sound like they have some special skill of the kind a “swordsman” might have. They don’t. All they have is guns. And the impulse to kill with them.
Listen for the difference: “A gunman killed 10 people” versus “An 18-year-old boy with a gun killed 10 people.”
A reporter will have other choices to make. “Boy” might also be “young man” or “adolescent.” “People” might be “innocent people.”
The gun in this latest mass murder was an AR-15 style weapon with a high-capacity magazine.
We can talk separately about what might have made these people want to kill with the guns they had these innocent people who were not threatening them.
John Warnock, professor emeritus of English at UA
Midtown
Wake up! Re: the May 23 letter “The Party of Life.”
The letter writer assigns all gun deaths, pollution deaths, COVID deaths, child hunger and homelessness on Republicans. But wait. Point of fact: Under Clinton and Obama, the Democrats had 16 total years to address and correct your issues. And they did squat. Currently, the Democrats hold all the cards: the presidency, the House and the Senate. And, what have they done to address your issues? Squat. It ain’t Republicans. Wake up!
Jay Elliott
Northwest
Kudos to Cordileone
Kudos to San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, who on May 20 announced that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would be barred from receiving Holy Communion due to her pro-abortion stance. Cordileone wrote a letter to Pelosi saying, “A Catholic legislator who supported procured abortion, after knowing the teaching of the Church, commits a manifestly grave sin which is a cause of most serious scandal to others.” Therefore, universal Church law provides that such persons ‘are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”
I am sick of people like Pelosi and Biden, who profess to be practicing Catholics yet enthusiastically support abortion rights. That is a blatant contradiction to Catholicism. Pope Francis lost any measure of legitimacy with me by allegedly telling Biden in a prayer meeting with him last October that he could continue receiving Communion. I think the Pope thinks more of Biden’s climate change and open borders agenda than the tens of millions of developing babies that have been vacuum-aspired in America since Roe v. Wade.
Pamela Newsome
Northwest side
Choose before inception
Re: the May 24 letter “Abortion prevention.”
The letter writer’s suggestion to implant a birth control device or perform vasectomies on all 18-year-old males, leaves one very important step out. If you suggest this, then you should also implant all 18-year-old females with such a device. There is a way to prevent an unwanted pregnancy in most cases, it’s called birth control. There’s always adoption as well. There are thousands of couples wanting to adopt. Before you start sputtering about rape or incest, these exceptions are in most, if not all, state abortion laws. A woman’s right to choose starts before inception.
Debbie Nelson
SaddleBrooke
