Letters for July 23, 2024

Leaders should welcome school choice

The April 29 article highlighting Spokane Housing Authority offering additional housing vouchers was enlightening. What’s odd is how a nearly identical program – in principle, function, even name – draws such ire from progressives, while housing choice is supported.

School choice functions exactly like housing choice. The housing vouchers allow participants “to choose to sign a lease at any private residence.” A school voucher program allows a child to attend any school of their choice. Instead of helping disadvantaged families get into better housing and neighborhoods, school choice would help those same families, and far more of them, get into better schools.

However, unlike the housing program, new or additional money isn’t needed for school vouchers. For example, the state already earmarks more than $10,000 for each student in Spokane Public Schools.

In this comparison, the teachers’ union is like the landlords opposing housing choice. In an apparent attempt to maintain the status quo and protect their revenue via dues-paying members, teachers’ unions object to school choice. This only serves their political and lobbying activities, not teachers or kids.

It’s also odd how we’re repeatedly told that more housing options are needed to fit varying needs, preferences, and income, but evidently, there is only one schooling option the public should accept. Government housing didn’t work, and so housing advocates shifted to supporting voucher and subsidy programs. Government schools, if they ever worked, no longer do. Leaders should welcome school choice as a much -needed and popular solution, just like housing choice.

Drew Repp

Spokane

Cut housing taxes and red tape

The city of Spokane and the state of Washington have been struggling with housing affordability. Yet they have responded to that by increasing the burdens on landlords, increasing excise taxes on the sale of homes, increasing property taxes and increasing construction costs by requiring such things as sufficient green energy points. Then they use money forcibly taxed from some to subsidize others in their search for housing, increasing dependency on the government. This violates liberty and makes housing more expensive. The biggest hindrance to housing affordability is our city and state government, with about 27% of the cost of a new home going to taxes and regulatory costs.

Solution? Eliminate taxes on housing and slash regulation. Imagine a $400,000 home now only costing $300,000, or a $2,000 rental unit now only costing $1,500! Like water, money tends to flow to where it has the best chance of being profitable. So, if we need more money devoted to housing, cut the taxes and red tape that make housing less profitable, and many more will be able to afford their own home.

As for rental prices, stop passing laws undermining landlords, as these laws make profit less certain and therefore stifle investment into housing and require higher rents to offset costs and uncertainty. You get less of what you penalize. Spokane and Washington, stop penalizing housing. Get out of the way and unleash the power of freedom.

Kevin Kimball

Spokane

Election denier can’t provide proof

Sue Lani Madsen’s column (July 11) which pretends to promote rebuilding trust in America’s election system deliberately erodes the trust she supposedly cares about. There was no significant lack of trust in the system until 2016 when Donald Trump invented the issue to promote his own agenda. The county computer networks she cites as being vulnerable to cyberattack have no connection with vote tallying since vote -tallying machines are not connected to the internet, but Madsen of course knows that. And the signature verification process she claims needs attention has worked just fine for decades, but of course she knows that as well.

Neither she nor any of the other MAGA-inspired attackers of the system have provided one shred of evidence supporting the fraud claims they have perpetrated. But they know that repeating the allegations falsely provides the appearance of validity, which I’m sure Madsen also knows.

The Braver Angels campaign Madsen cites recommends nothing significantly different from how the present system operates. All we need do to restore trust in our voting system is to publicly support the tens of thousands of election officials such as Spokane County Auditor Vickie Dalton and the thousands of honest volunteers who work with them to ensure votes are counted correctly and who have been viciously attacked by MAGA minions as a result, and challenge those who “know” that fraud occurred to provide proof of their allegations – but they can’t do that, can they?

Steve Blewett

Spokane

Baumgartner to replace CMR

We have an impressive list of people hoping to represent us after the retirement of Cathy McMorris-Rodgers. My experience working for state Sen. Michael Baumgartner makes my choice easy even with such a strong field of candidates. Mike has the experience, character and intelligence to represent us well in our nation’s capital. His work in Olympia and as our county treasurer speaks for itself. But what impresses me most about Mike is his devotion to his family. Please join me in supporting Mike as he will work hard to secure our border, reduce crime and hopefully restore fiscal sanity in this great republic.

Matt McCoy

Spokane

Let voters decide

I’m writing in response to the letter (“Conroy best choice for Congress,” July 14) that focused on congressional candidate Michael Baumgartner’s support for the initiatives that will be on our ballots this November.

His Democrat opponent, Carmela Conroy, is simply wrong to oppose these initiatives.

Initiative 2117 repeals the unnecessary “cap-and-invest” law that added an estimated 43 cents to the cost of a gallon of gas last year, hurting families, businesses and our farmers.

Initiative 2109 rolls back the state capital gains tax – which is effectively an income tax, and therefore illegal under the Washington State Constitution. Washington voters have rejected an income tax 10 times!

Initiative 2124 would end the long-term care insurance program, which is a badly designed program that many of us have been compelled to pay into – instead of being allowed to make our own decisions on long -term care options.

These are great, common-sense initiatives that will make Washington state a better place to live.

I am very grateful to Michael Baumgartner for his vocal support of these initiatives, and to his political supporter Brian Heywood of Let’s Go Washington for helping collect the thousands of signatures needed to get these measures on our ballot – so that the voters can decide.

Susan Bacon

Spokane

We need balance in Olympia

We can do it Spokane! Forty years of Democrats in charge in this state. The last 28 years were Democrats as well as lawyers. Ten times we have voted down state income tax and they did it anyway. Now some of the richest and most generous residents are moving out of state because they are being taxed against the wishes of the voters. You wait, they will find a way to tax all of our income.

Been around Spokane a long time? People are retiring that were born when the 395-bypass started! They may be dead of old age before it is finished.

Remember the Seattle police having their precinct taken over by rioters and Inslee and his buddy Ferguson doing nothing? Defund the police! I could go on but here is the point.

We need balance in Olympia. We have been run over by one party that has hurt small businesses, passed laws that we have to change through the initiative process, and allowed drug sales, a homeless mess and increased crime.

We need a solid, respected governor to hold the line against more taxes, more crazy laws and continued excess spending. Our best option with a very good chance to win is Dave Reichert. I have known Dave personally for decades with the utmost respect for all he has accomplished as well as his core values. Finally, please vote!

John Olaughlin

Nine Mile Falls

Highway robbery by Department of Licensing

On July 2, I bought an old project pickup camper, sans pickup. Yesterday, well within the 15-day legal requirement to do so, I went to my local Department of Licensing to have the title transferred into my name. The total of the various and sundry “fees” came to nearly half of what I paid for the camper!

The clerk asked if I wanted to also license the camper. I replied that it is nowhere near that stage; moreover, it’s already licensed. It has a brand-new license and plate purchased May 17, 2024 – thus obviously current until May 2025.

I then asked, just suppose I did license it now and get yet another new plate – am I supposed to take the other new current plate back to the fellow from whom I had bought the camper? She replied, “Yes.” Well, a lot of good that would do him – it was registered to the camper I bought from him!

Recently this paper has printed letters by writers lambasting drivers who have vehicles with expired plates. Kind of makes me wonder if perhaps a few of them do so to protest this “highway robbery” by Washington state and the Department of Licensing.

Add to all this – a few weeks ago this paper wrote of how Washington state is hard-pressed to make enough license plates – evidently, they do a lot of this “double-dipping” robbery.

Ken Campbell

Deer Park