LETTERS
Gas Taxes
How much less will you drive if the state hikes the tax on gasoline by 50 cents per gallon, tacks on a two-cent-a-mile levy for every mile you drive or mandates pay-at-the-pump auto insurance that tacks another 43 cents per gallon to the price of gasoline?
Some state bureaucrats are betting that “pricing options” like these will lead to a 15% reduction in consumer demand for gasoline by 2020. If you think this is farfetched, think again.
These pricing options are among the strategies outlined in a draft report prepared by staffs of the California Energy Commission and the California Air Resources Board. Mandated by a law enacted in 2000, the report examines a variety of strategies for reducing California’s dependence on petroleum.
If all of the pricing options that the report identifies were to be adopted, the cost to consumers could be over $15 billion annually and could lead to the loss of nearly 180,000 jobs.
STOP Hidden Gas Taxes is a coalition of business, taxpayer and consumer interests. STOP fully supports energy conservation efforts and a competitive market for all fuels. But the coalition objects to mandates that would add to the already high cost of living and threaten jobs in a state that is already suffering from an economic recession.
Strangely, the Energy Commission staff is ignoring its own earlier report, which found that vehicle fuel efficiency has nearly doubled over the past 25 to 30 years. Existing regulations and market competition are working. We don’t need more mandates, taxes and fees.
Audrie Krause
Executive Director
STOP Hidden Gas Taxes
Burlingame
United Way
I was delighted to read your June 16 story about the 2003 Community Involvement Survey finding that the Orange County business community is indeed very supportive of local philanthropy.
As board chair for Orange County’s United Way, I have seen this support firsthand. We raised nearly $26 million this past year, almost all coming from Orange County businesses and their employees.
The article correctly pointed to the fact that, with the current economic situation, businesses have been inundated with funding requests to meet the enormous need for human-care services in Orange County. With that, there is a critical need to ensure that the impact of the business community’s charitable dollar is maximized, with measurable results that show a true return on the investment in our community.
As we gear up for the 2003-04 fundraising campaign, Orange County’s United Way would like to reiterate its focus on measurable results and accountability to the donor.
We at Orange County’s United Way have always been proud of our partnership with the business community. This study proves what we have known all along: that Orange County businesses are some of the most caring and community-focused organizations anywhere.
Janet Toll Davidson
(Davidson is senior counsel with Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP and chair of Orange County’s United Way.)
El Toro, Cont’d
El Toro Reuse Planning Authority spokeswoman Meg Waters literally makes mountains out of molehills by claiming that because El Toro has mountains on three sides, it is incapable of being used as a civilian airport.
Well then, how did the Marines ever manage to get jets in and out of there? They didn’t just use maneuverable fighter jets either,there were some heavy transports, including Air Force One.
J.C. Carter
Irvine
