Bustamante’s Slip
Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante recently used the “n” word during a speech, and while the slip was embarrassing, he has since been forgiven by black leaders in California.
But what if a Republican had made the utterance, in similar circumstances? We all know that the unfortunate Republican’s reputation and political career would be completely destroyed by liberals, including Bustamante. That is an unfortunate double standard that we should not tolerate.
Art Pedroza Jr.
Santa Ana
Rick Reiff should be commended for talking about important but somewhat unpopular issues as Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante’s use of a racial slur during a recent speech.
However, I disagree with Rick that “it’s a cheap shot to berate Bustamante.” I don’t doubt the lieutenant governor regrets saying the n-word in his speech to a largely black audience. I do believe, however, that it is a clear indication that he uses the word on a regular basis.
Also, Mr. Bustamante’s record on civil rights is not pertinent to the issue. It may only indicate that Mr. Bustamante supports legislation protecting minorities while still harboring hate for a particular racial group. At best this means our lieutenant governor is disingenuous. At worst, I believe it means that Mr. Bustamante is a closet racist, one that puts on a smile in public but has an ugly side when he thinks no one is watching.
Adam D. Probolsky
(Probolsky is a Newport Beach-based Republican pollster and fundraiser.)
Split-Roll Taxes
Legislation (AB 1013) introduced on Feb. 23 by Assemblyman Bill Leonard (R-San Bernardino) would split the property tax roll and increase taxes on commercial property.
This new bill is the latest signal of growing support for the concept, especially from local government and public employee unions that make up the spending lobby.
Collecting more taxes in this manner would be the single most damaging tax policy change that could occur in California. Among the problems:
–Even the most limited split roll would increase taxes billions of dollars annually, reduce the number of jobs in California by nearly 75,000 within two years and cause personal income in the state to fall by $11 billion. Those figures are from a 1992 analysis by the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research of Proposition 167’s split-roll scheme, which voters rejected.
–Split-roll property taxes are new hidden taxes on consumers, because businesses will raise prices of products to cover the higher tax. Higher prices on products and services will make California industry less competitive in national and global markets.
–A return to market value assessments shifts taxes from an objective standard (“sales price”) to a subjective one (“assessors’ opinion of value”), leading to unfair assessments and more appeals.
Larry McCarthy
President
California Taxpayers Association
Sacramento
El Toro, Cont’d
We need ETX-El Toro International Airport to be built!
This county has too many people to continue sending them to LAX. The drive is long and the crowds are horrendous at Los Angeles. Long Beach doesn’t have flights that go anywhere far away and John Wayne is over-priced with limited flight choices.
Ontario is too far away and San Diego is even worse.
The new tax base of expanding business and factories would also be nice. That’s a lot of money and long-term growth being “short-sighted” by a few “Luddites” in South County.
Justin Willis
Huntington Beach
I recently saw Newport Beach Mayor Gary Adams waving the city banner for “a John Wayne-size airport for El Toro.”
Surely the mayor is aware that Orange County already has “a John Wayne-size airport.” It is built to accommodate 14 million passengers during daytime operations, and, ominously, an additional 6 million at night. And I’d bet Adams understands that, due to existing limits, only about 7.7 million passengers currently use John Wayne,but that can easily be increased to 10, or 14, or even 20 million passengers, without physical expansion, once 2005 rolls around.
The fight over El Toro is not about excessive airport demand requiring more runways, it’s about moving a Newport “nuisance” to someone else’s backyard.
Michael Smith
Mission Viejo
The residents of Newport Beach accepted the nuisance of the airport when they chose to purchase property near the airport, and they received the benefit of a cheaper purchase price for doing so. South County residents did not make that choice, and should not be forced to pay, in noise and in lower property values, when that was not the deal to begin with.
Lisa Black
Laguna Beach
How long did El Toro Airport supporters in Newport Beach think South County would continue to support the extension of flight caps at John Wayne, while they continued to push for closing John Wayne and building a new airport at El Toro?
Good luck Newport, because of your selfishness you’re all alone now.
Kevin Cook
Ladera Ranch
