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Our Readers’ Views

The Columbian
Published: March 15, 2010, 12:00am

Towers devalue property

We live in Bonneville Power Administration’s proposed line route 26. This route runs from the Merwin Dam area to south of Amboy and west of Yacolt. Senior BPA project manager Mark Korsness has said the BPA is “considering corridors in less-populated areas.” We are not a “less-populated” area. We are a population of neighbors. We matter. What we say and want matters. What the BPA intends with their reckless plan matters deeply to us.

There are nearly 500 homes on line 26. That adds up to thousands of people and thousands of acres of beautiful, pristine land. We chose to live in the quiet beauty and serenity of the rural countryside. The BPA puts us in limbo with regard to our property values. State law requires sellers must disclose the BPA notification to potential buyers. Visual impacts of towers and lines will adversely affect values of adjacent properties not even included in a line. How many people would buy a property that could be a destination for 150-foot towers (15 stories) and 500 kilovolt transmission lines?

We don’t want our priceless views, pristine land, and our lifetime investments wiped out by huge towers, massive lines and devalued properties. Public power should be on public land.

Merle L. Moore and Robert D. Long

Yacolt

Make accountability easier to check

Why can’t we, the taxpayers, get a checkbook accounting of how much, what and where, the county and state are spending our tax dollars on? These politicians/commissioners get voted in and then carry out their own agendas. When was the last time they openly came out and said, “Here is what I have been working on. Is there anything you voters would like me work on?” They feel the only way to solve issues is tax the people. If the county and state operated using the checkbook system we wouldn’t be in the red.

In response to Heather Cowley’s March 4 letter, “Most of us pay taxes to benefit all,” telling me as a retiree to be quiet, well, people are getting fed up with being taxed to death. It’s either passing higher levies, or raising property taxes, or trying to institute some other kind of tax to pay for their spending habits. How far does it have to go before people take a stand?

Lyle Daugherty

Vancouver

Let nature run its course

Once again our wildlife managers resort to the senseless killing of sea lions at Bonneville Dam. (March 1 Columbian story “Wash., Ore. to begin trapping sea lions again.”) To see an animal trapped in a cage is like shooting ducks in a barrel. Is killing migratory sea lions justified to save the salmon they feed on? I don’t think so. The salmon have been around for 100 years and so have the predators that hunt them.

These Washington and Oregon wildlife officials are just like the commercial fishing crowd that kills sea lions, seals and other salmon predators in the ocean. To pick and choose what to kill is nothing more than legal murder of protected animals. The wildlife agents are the same people who keep lawful fishermen from catching salmon they are trying to protect. Having fished in just about every lake, river and stream in this state for the past 50 years, I say it’s time the general public realizes the mad, stupid, and sometimes cruel stuff that goes on with our wildlife operation.

To some, killing a fish or a sea lion makes no difference. To us who care about fish and animals, it does. The bottom line is, “Let nature take its course.”

Rolf Knapp

Vancouver

What’s ‘covered’ is minimal

Let’s talk “quality,” “affordable” government-run health care.

Quality: I’m 51, paraplegic 22 years, on Medicare. According to Care Medical, Medicare won’t cover for a lightweight wheelchair unless you fight for it. Twenty years of paraplegia have taken their toll on my joints. A heavy chair hastens the day when I am even more dependent on expensive care. According to Care Medical, Medicare will “cover” only an indoor wheelchair: a life sentence to house arrest, because I’m disabled. Space limits elaboration.

Affordable: of $7,384 Social Security last year, subtract $1,156 Medicare B, $438 Part D. Medicare will “cover” to replace a wheelchair every five years. I’ve been limping along in a chair literally tied together, needing replacing over a year ago. Required prescriptions cost $145 for doctor visit, not covered. For a $400 wheelchair and $400 seat cushion, about $250 now plus estimated $30 a month for 13 months, is my part of the “covered” wheelchair.

Beside Social Security I get a small civil service disability. Not all government employ is cushy with big benefits. When I worked for the IRS, I couldn’t even afford the health care insurance.

Maybe your math is better than mine, but I don’t call this government health care affordable, nor quality.

Susan Ternyey

Vancouver

Tax-free ride allowed by loopholes

Most of America’s largest publicly traded corporations, utilizing laws written by lobbyist attorneys and corporatist politicians, have set up offshore operations that help them avoid paying U.S. taxes on their profits. Eighty-three of the 100 largest public companies are doing business in tax-free sanctuaries like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands. The Treasury Department estimates that it loses $100 billion a year in tax revenue, a result of these companies hiding their income offshore.

After these corporate giants played, and lost, a game of roulette that brought our economy to the brink of a depression, taxpayers were asked to pony up tax dollars to keep them from folding and throwing the U.S. and world economy into the abyss.

The American taxpayer is carrying the tax load while corporations manipulate the system, allowing them to escape paying taxes and compensate their CEO’s with multimillion-dollar salaries and retirement packages. And we the working-class chumps support their failures! Doesn’t it anger you to know that these profitable corporations can hide their money offshore and not pay their share to the country that made it possible for them to be so successful?

That loophole must be closed.

Rich Raitano

La Center

Notice was unnecessary cost

I just received my official letter from the U.S. Census Bureau informing me that my official letter from the U.S. Census Bureau should be arriving in the mail soon. Huh? I know the census is important, but was this really necessary? Did they send this letter to the entire country? How much did this cost?

I’m glad to see that we are going the extra mile to support the post office but somehow I think our resources could have been better spent. How many schools do you think this letter was worth?

Perhaps it’s time to look at how we run this business called the U.S. government.

Jeffrey A. Gibbons

Camas

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