LETTERS 05/12/08

It seems as though the city leaders can give themselves a raise yet can’t give tax-paying citizens a fair shake when it comes to providing and paying for a basic service. If single-family homeowners had been asked to pay extra to get their trash removed, there would be hell to pay. How sad is this?

Jim Birt

Kansas City

Rising utility bills

Please be wise and save your economic stimulus check to pay for your summer electric bills. My family has worked hard to reduce our use of electricity and lessen our carbon footprint, and we have been successful.

Last year, our April usage was 1304 kilowatt-hours; this year it was 1012 kwh — a reduction of nearly 10 kwh per day or, in other words, a 23 percent reduction in usage. Imagine my surprise when the amount due on this year’s April bill was $94.09, and the April 2007 bill was $95.73. My family has used 23 percent less electricity, yet our bill was reduced by only $1.64.

The Missouri Public Service Commission claims that what amounts to more than a 20 percent rate increase is supposed to cover increasing costs of acquiring electricity. However, I can’t help but feel it is mostly used to cover Aquila’s payouts to the Green brothers, bad investments and legal fees for building an illegal power plant in Cass County.

Mandy Quinn

Lee’s Summit

Don’t celebrate gas-tax holiday

K. A. Parker blames “liberals” for asking John McCain how he would pay for the temporary gas-tax suspension (Letters, 5/6). Parker suggests the government should swallow the revenue loss and simply “spend less.”

If the government spends less for infrastructure maintenance than it does now, the country will fall apart, literally. The 2007 bridge collapse in Minneapolis was a warning.

No one likes taxes, but we pay them so we can maintain our roads and bridges, and because we value other tax-supported amenities such as parks, schools, museums and libraries; police, firefighters, streetlights and sewers; clean air and water; safe food, medicines, buildings and products; and much, much more.

We must maintain our roads, now or later (at a higher cost). Collectively is how we have to do it. “Spend less” is often a good idea. But like so many things, it is easier said than done.

Joan Hancock

Raytown

Call me an elitist, but I must agree with Barack Obama that the gas tax-suspension plan Hillary Clinton is backing is no plan at all. It is nothing more than a cheap trick to get votes from those who are not familiar with the economic forces that set gas prices.

Gas supply is somewhat fixed right now, and if we lower the price people will buy more gas, causing the price to go back up. The tax break will disappear and then, after three months, the tax will be reapplied, making gas prices even higher than before. Sound good?

I have been reluctant to tell anyone which candidate to support so far, but I must point out blatant dirty tactics and lies. This is utter desperation on Clinton’s part, and it lets me see her true colors under pressure.

Tommy Burnett

St. Joseph

President’s powers limited

Unfortunately, the grandiose promises from Sens. John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama can become reality only after the approval of 535 U.S. Congress members and 40,000 lobbyists.

Do not let them insult your intelligence as to what they can and will do when becoming president.

Donald G. Siedenburg

Shawnee

Downside of preschool

The Star’s article “Preschool funding plan advances” (5/2, Local) did not take into consideration the various downsides of pre-kindergarten schooling. Not mentioned were the greater percentage of young children expelled from preschool than older children from school, the fading of academic gains in later grades, and the increase in antisocial behaviors of young children.

 

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