LETTERS
County CEO
This letter is in response to the Aug. 4 “Help Wanted” Viewpoint by John Moorlach.
I would suggest to Mr. Moorlach that before he writes an article that he do some type of research on the validity of the subject matter. Among several expectations that the taxpayer, the board of supervisors, the county’s department heads and the county’s employees should have of our next CEO, Mr. Moorlach lists “the strength to extricate the county from the ill-advised and costly project labor agreement.”
If Mr. Moorlach is selected as the new CEO, I certainly hope his recommendations to the board of supervisors are based on factual information. I would like to have him explain who ill-advised the majority of the board that approved the project labor agreement. Additionally, where is the cost?
If the contractors (union or nonunion) bid the county projects with the intent of paying prevailing wages as required by state and county law, the cost of construction labor is basically the same, regardless of a project labor agreement. And in many cases, with the use of registered apprentices, the cost will be less.
Could it be that Mr. Moorlach doesn’t want the workers to receive prevailing wages? Is this an attempt to save money by taking it from the worker’s paycheck? If that is what he means, he should say it.
Jim Adams
Council Representative
Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council
State Budget
Leading Assembly Democrats are apparently planning to roll back the car tax increase triggered this year by the Davis administration and replace it with a massive increase in the personal income tax, cigarette tax and potentially others.
The scheme would be a swap intended to be revenue neutral. Although legally suspect, they would use this back-door legislative maneuver in an effort to circumvent the Constitution’s two-thirds vote requirement for increasing taxes.
Cal-Tax, among others, has long held that two-thirds votes are needed to increase state taxes and this rule should apply even in a so-called revenue-neutral measure because the bill would be increasing taxes on some class of taxpayer.
The proposed increase in income tax is massive. It would raise taxes on those with adjusted gross incomes of $125,000 or more (single filers) and $250,000 (joint filers).
Raising income taxes will also impact small, unincorporated businesses that account for 15% of personal income tax payments and will chase away jobs because Nevada, Texas and other non-income tax states become more attractive for investment. More upper-income Californians will be encouraged to take up residence elsewhere.
Raising the tax on cigarettes (from 87 cents a pack to $1.10 a pack, with corresponding increases in excise taxes on other tobacco products) would violate every tenet of good tax policy. The cigarette tax is a revenue source that will decline as rates are increased. The tax is extremely regressive and more of its burden falls on lower income households.
The Legislature has left untouched numerous opportunities to reduce spending by eliminating fraud, waste, mismanagement and low-priority activities that are consuming taxpayer dollars.
Larry McCarthy
President
California Taxpayers’ Association
Sacramento
The Recall
I think the Terminator may have turned into the “Incinerator.” Arnold’s points dropped by 50% in some polls and his choices of Buffett the “Taxinator” and Lowe the “Teen Fornicator” blew everyone’s mind.
I say dump Arnold and get right behind last year’s Mr. Vanilla, Simple Simon. If not, get your resume ready and reapply for work at your relocated company, which may be moving to Nevada or Arizona.
Barry M. Gold
Irvine
El Toro, Cont’d
From 1955 through 1958 I was a Marine avionics shop supervisor. I lived in Santa Ana and drove to El Toro past the former Navy Dirigible Hangars in Tustin that eventually became the Marine Corps Helicopter Air Station.
Let me get to the point,an El Toro International Airport.
I took time, from across the country, to read the pros and cons of the possible facility. My recommendation:
Rip up El Toro’s old runways.
They served America well in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. But parks and nature always bring smiles to the faces of Marines. Although Marines have had to place so many scars upon the face of Mother Earth to obtain freedom for man/womankind, we too enjoy seeing beauty put back into her being!
Semper Fi.
Orlando De Marco Jr.
U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant, 1954-1960
Paris, Tenn.
An open letter to Secretary Lawrence Minetta:
I am writing regarding your recent letter to Congressman Chris Cox stating that the Department of Transportation will not ask the Navy for El Toro for civilian airport re-use. You wrote, “Our jurisdiction and historical exercise of our authority does not extend so far as to overrule … the decisions of local governments regarding use of that property.” Yet, towards the end of the letter you wrote, “We will continue ways to increase capacity in the airspace of that region.”
Since residents near Burbank, John Wayne, LAX, Long Beach, Los Alamitos, March and San Diego Airports oppose expansion, then is it safe to assume that neither the DOT nor the FAA, will look to expand those facilities either?
If so, then the airports left (currently) without local political opposition are Ontario, Palmdale, San Bernadino and Victorville. But those facilities are far away from the lucrative coastal markets that fuel the region’s growing aviation demand. Since you are a California resident, I am sure you are quite aware of the horrible congestion that already plagues our freeways.
What exactly are the DOT’s long-range game plans to increase aviation capacity for Southern California? We anxiously await an answer.
Rex Ricks
Huntington Beach
In light of the recent “letta from Minetta” it seems wise to visit the airport which he seems to have turned his back on. The planned El Toro International Airport has two 10,000-foot runways, two 8,000-foot runways, a tower and a terminal. El Toro is unique in Southern California because it is located in a calm valley with long, low, straight-in panhandle approaches and fuel-saving crossed runways pointing to where airplanes need to go.
But housing developers have been conspiring to rip up this airport and replace it with houses ever since the military decided to leave in 1994.
Donald Nyre
Newport Beach
Airport proponents once again offered “compelling arguments” in support of a proposal secretly submitted by Los Angeles to lease El Toro for the construction of a 28 MAP (million air passengers per year) commercial airport.
They were still repeating the same misleading arguments that were used in the county’s campaign opposing Measure W. The one that I consider to be the most egregious is the reference to FAA declaring El Toro to be a safe airport for arrivals and departures.
The FAA study was based on a 4-MAP airport. After extrapolating the 4-MAP data the FAA reported that a 28-MAP airport would create delays of as much as one hour in the surrounding airports, thereby creating unsafe conditions.
Paul Willems
Laguna Niguel
