Cities can avoid bankruptcy by taxing
Regarding your May 6 editorial (“Latest stab at bankruptcy bill just as bad as others”): A municipal government seeking bankruptcy protection is, in fact, attempting to escape its legitimate contractual obligations to the detriment of employees and creditors. You support this kind of default because, your editorial asserts, “a government running out of money” should be able to declare bankruptcy without any obstacles arising from state law. Why not avoid “running out of money” by raising taxes, which spreads the burden of paying for government services to all who use those services?
The editorial’s references to “changes to labor contracts” and “concessions” from unions is really a defense of the Republican strategy of having one group of citizens (public sector union employees) bail out the rest of the community, especially their wealthy political donors.
William Alioto
Salinas
Veteran’s foreclosure worthy of outrage
I have been waiting for the declarations of outrage over the May 6 Scott Herhold column on the home foreclosure of a 99-year-old veteran. So far, nothing!
No question that very dubious methods were used to talk Basilio Mosqueda into an adjustable-rate mortgage loan. These methods were perhaps illegal. One thing is certain: What happened to Mr. Mosqueda was morally wrong! Shame on the weasel who talked him into the loan and the financial institutions that accepted it and then “bundled” it.
It looks as if greed and the bottom line know no bounds. What about some regulation on such practices as this? Someone should be facing jail time.
Reid May
Saratoga
Bush’s tough action helped get bin Laden
My friend Richard Robinson’s letter (May 6) was typical Democratic partisan hooey. Robinson appropriately gloats over President Barack Obama’s execution of Osama bin Laden, yet he has railed endlessly about President George W. Bush’s torturous tactics at Guantanamo Bay. Robinson should thank Bush for the fortitude to take unpopular stances (like opening Guantanamo and using tough interrogation tactics) when they were necessary to protect us. As it turns out, some of those “harsh tactics” used at Guantanamo gave us the leads to get bin Laden.
Robinson, like many other strict partisans, likes tough action when performed by one of “his” politicians, but abhors it when performed by an opponent. Some people are like bad umpires: They just can’t call them as they see them.
John M. Pisacane, DMD
San Jose
State must rethink its prison system
“Report: Inmate health care remains poor in California” (Page B5, May 5) is more proof that California is addicted to incarceration. Rather than supporting rehabilitation or alternative sentencing programs, California continues to support harsher and longer sentences resulting in such severe prison overcrowding that inmates are unable to access adequate health care.
The California Sheriff’s Association reported prisons were operating at double the design capacity in 2006. Those who died due to lack of adequate treatment were essentially sentenced to the death penalty through negligence. How many will have to die before we realize that locking up an increasing percentage of our population does not make us safer? We need to rethink our prison system if this is what constitutes justice in our society.
Vanessa Kimball, Ebony Mayfield
San Jose
Library fees will hurt low-income residents
I am completely against fees for libraries. This $80 fee (“Library fee not just for late books anymore,” Page A1, May 4) will have a serious impact on the people who are most in need of library services: the poor, unemployed, seniors, students, children from low-income families and people who have no other resources.
Will Santa Clara County take this into consideration and charge a lower fee or waive the fees altogether? With gas almost $5 a gallon and water and utility costs going up, this will be a real hardship on most people. These are citizens who cannot afford computers, iPods or Kindles or to purchase books.
Let’s cut some of these ridiculously large pensions and other perks that many county employees seem to feel they have the right to and allow everyone regardless of income to enjoy our library system.
Nancy O’Hare
Sunnyvale
Republican victory in 2012 assured
I have my doubts that Rosario Locasso (Letters, May 9) has been a major donor to the Republican Party, but if she has, good riddance. We can exist without her support.
With the private sector being systematically destroyed, unemployment at 9 percent, food and fuel prices going through the roof, all other commodities doing the same, and the housing market collapsing for the second time, the national debt rocketing to new heights and government printing presses making our dollar shrink, the Republican Party can pretty well nominate anyone for president who is not named Barack Obama and be assured of a landslide victory.
Ed Riffle
Milpitas
