Prop. 206 will have immediate repercussions
Proposition 206, the Tucson minimum wage initiative, claims to be about getting workers to $15 per hour. While I am very supportive of that result, the increases to the minimum wage will be slow and will not reach $15/hour until 2025. In fact, Arizonaโs current minimum wage is pegged to inflation and may get to $15 before then. But if Proposition 206 passes it will instantly put into effect costly and time-consuming requirements that will make it harder for businesses to thrive within city limits. Proposition 206 will create a new city department to receive and investigate complaints against employers. To fund this new department, the city of Tucson may charge businesses extra fees, such as increased license taxes, license fees or other taxes. If Proposition 206 passes, workers will not see immediate financial gains, but businesses, particularly small and family owned, will immediately suffer the consequences of an ill-conceived initiative. Vote no on Proposition 206.
David Cohen
Midtown
Rich focused on getting richer
Re: the Oct. 12 article "Facebook's algorithms are too big to fix."
I don't use Facebook and see Mark Zuckerberg as a modern-day version of the robber barons of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Dubbed "malefactors of great wealth" by President Theodore Roosevelt, the robber barons were largely reined in by the Sherman and Clayton antitrust acts. Clearly those laws are no longer adequate to regulate tech giants like Facebook.
Author Cathy O'Neil acknowledges that the limited monitoring she proposes is far from perfect but just might be "a foot in the door" toward holding big tech accountable. We can only hope.
It's a sad commentary when one of the world's richest men remains focused on getting richer rather than making Facebook more transparent and accountable. Wouldn't it be nice if the Zuckerbergs of this world would do the right thing without being forced to by law.
William Thornton
Midtown
Undermining election credibility
It has become a political strategy to challenge election results across the country especially when the challenger does not like the results.
It seems these efforts to question the results of elections are not to challenge those past elections but to sow seeds of doubt in the general voting public that the process of voting and counting votes is not legitimate.
Time after time, the audits confirm the certified results and yet competent election officials are threatened emotionally and physically by unhinged protesters. As citizens, it is our unequivocal duty to stand up to this manipulation and bullying by those who think the way to silence people is to disenfranchise them.
Nothing is more important for our democracy than guaranteeing a clear, convenient and safe path for every citizen to cast their vote.
Sue Garcia
Foothills
Typical Republicans
Re: the Oct. 14 article "Biden's policies are disenchanting."
Mr. Newport says he is a centrist Democrat. Then he excoriates President Joe Biden's fiscal management, his alleged harm to the work ethic and claimed permissive immigration policies. However, these are attitudes typical of Republicans who express little or no concern about the cost of waging war or handing out tax cuts that largely benefit the wealthy. The 2017 tax cut legislation contributed to adding an estimated $3.9 trillion to the federal deficit.
There seems to be a chronic outcry from Republicans regarding the proposed For the People Act which they allege corrodes the work ethic.ย
I believe Mr. Newport is in the wrong voting booth.
Richard Johnson
North side
