Use our money wisely
I am daily more amazed at the wasteful spending and lack of concern over killing people by our leadership. Our governor is dead set against mask or vaccine mandates; now Attorney General Mark Brnovich is suing because he believes there hasn’t been enough scientific testing of the vaccines. I don’t know where he got his medical degree, but it must have been through Fox News or one of the conspiracy theorists. So he has spent zillions of our money on frivolous lawsuits. After the thousands spent by our Legislature and Kelli Ward on the ridiculous election recount, it would seem in our best interests to focus our spending on things we need. Please use our money more wisely.
Steven Curtis
Green Valley
Prop. 206 will indeed cost jobs
Re: the Oct. 29 letter “Proposition 206.”
The letter quotes a 1992 study comparing unemployment rates between New Jersey and Pennsylvania, concluding that raising the minimum wage had “no effect” on employment.
That study has been widely debunked for its tacit assumption that employers continue business as usual right up until the day of the mandatory wage increase. Of course, employers knew well in advance that a cost increase was coming, so they would (and did) taper off employment as the day approached. Simply put, the study erred by looking only at changes that occurred after the date of the wage increase, ignoring the very real reduction in employment that had already taken place.
Orwell said, “There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them.” The same can be said of any economist who claims that raising the price of a nonessential commodity (such as labor) does not reduce demand.
Jerrod Mason
Green Valley
Vaccine a matter of public health
Re: the Oct. 29 letter “First responders.”
The author of the letter wrote that he could not imagine how the Tucson City Council could threaten to fire or suspend city workers who refuse to get vaccinated against the deadly COVID-19 disease. He also recalls how great the paramedic firefighters who responded to his mother’s fall were. How great would he think they were if they had non-symptomatic COVID and had infected his mother, who later had to be hospitalized, or even died? This isn’t an issue of “personal choice.” This is a matter of public health, and everyone who interacts with the public needs to be vaccinated.
Karen Micallef
Oro Valley
Immigration and voting
Re: the Oct. 30 letter “Citizenship and votes.”
The letter writer contends that a path to citizenship is about votes. He turns a blind eye to redistricting. Arizona is still a Republican-controlled state and redistricting will no doubt favor Republicans even though we have an independent redistricting commission.
Let’s not forget that gaining citizenship takes about 10 years, and in the interim, these immigrants are paying taxes and contributing their labor, in many cases, in jobs nobody else wants. There are millions of unfilled jobs waiting for the immigrant workers, including farm work to feed us all.
I don’t know how many undocumented people enter the country these days, but I’d wager that most are asylum seekers and therefore legal.
Misinformation is abundant and flagrant these days. It is incumbent on us all to search for the truth. There are no alternative facts!
Joe Thompson
Foothills
Capitalism
There is a lot of fear-mongering over economic changes that will be positive as a whole. Increases in minimum wages and in corporate taxes have been described as inflationary. But that demonstrates a lack of understanding of the basic rules of capitalism.
While wages are somewhat inflationary, there are many studies that show gradual increases, as those proposed, are healthy for our consumer-based economy. The lower and middle income earners are the spenders putting much of what they earn right back into the economy. Prices are largely determined by supply and demand. Higher prices are created when the demand for a product outweighs the supply.
Today’s inflation is created by transportation problems in the supply chain and production problems that create relative scarcity. End-of-the-line taxes such as those paid by corporations seldom impact prices. If a corporation decided to flip its tax costs into price, they might find themselves no longer competitive.
Kalvin Smith
Midtown
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
