A great idea
Candidate Reimers may be on to something when he plans to use the private sector to stop the spread of toxic algae blooms in Clear Lake. But perhaps we can do more than just ask public corporations and organizations to simply donate funds for the clean-up.
With one big lake, several bays, a few coves, and a number of islands, perhaps the County can auction off naming rights in the form of annual license fees and use the proceeds to clean the lake. Fruit Island can become Chiquita Banana Island, Soda Bay can become Coke Cola Bay or Canada Dry Club Soda Bay, Pirates Cove can become Disney’s Pirates Cove, Honeymoon Cove can become — well, that’s a hard one. Monitor Island can become Samsung Island. And Rumsey Bay is a natural for Captain Morgan’s Bay.
Because Wells Fargo recently lost naming rights to Sonoma County’s Luther Burbank Center, I bet the bank will pay big bucks for “Wells Fargo is proud to present California’s largest lake: Wells Fargo Clear Lake.”
The possibilities are endless.
It’s a grand American tradition. Besides, look around for something in the public sector that doesn’t already depend on commercial funding and contributions.
Tom Guthrie, Lakeport
A taxing situation
The Lake County Board of Supervisors took another step towards placing a sales tax measure on the November ballot this week, with the tax intended to fund road repairs around the unincorporated parts of the county. Obviously county roads are in serious need of repair, and obviously the county needs more money due to sales and property taxes being down because of the fires, which have also strained the budget in a lot of other ways.
A sales tax would affect low income people the most, as all sales taxes are considered to be regressive. It would treat people the same if they drove 600 miles a week on our roads or if they didn’t drive at all, and the source of 90 percent of the damage to our roads (large trucks), would of course pay no tax at all.
There is a better way to raise taxes for road repairs, and that is to place a tax on fuel-not consumers. A county fuel tax could be staged to sunset as the cost per gallon rises, maybe 5 cents-per-gallon while fuel costs under $3 per-gallon, 3 cents while it’s under $4 per-gallon and 2 cents while it’s under $5 per gallon, there are endless combinations that could be offered.
This would accomplish several goals, the first is that it would raise the most money from those who profit from or use the roads the most and not take money from people who don’t drive, which is more fair. Second, it would encourage people to buy fuel efficient vehicles and to not make unnecessary trips, which helps reduce vehicle created pollution, and reduces our dependence on foreign oil and risk of environmental damage from drilling and refining.
A staged sunset fuel tax would also be less of a burden if we see another surge in fuel costs, though for now it seems that we can count on sub-$4 dollar a gallon fuel for the next few years so we have a rare opportunity to take advantage of being able to put a tax on a product that is going for bargain basement prices, historically speaking.
Sadly, our BOS seems unwilling to even consider anything but a sales tax for the next 20 years, even though the last four sales tax measures they have put on the ballot (at considerable expense) have all failed. We can have a more fair road repair tax that helps protect the environment, but that won’t happen unless people speak up now, so please contact your county supervisor and let them know how you feel about this important issue.
Phil Murphy, Lakeport
An apology
I would like to apologize to Shirley Hunter concerning my comments on General Patton.
Given the information we have now concerning PTSD, there is no way General Patton would behave in the manner I described. My point was to inform Mac that he had absolutely no idea how General Patton would react.
I am sorry I did not make that clear in my previous letter. Once again, please accept my apology and I would like to thank you for sharing your father’s experiences.
Kevin Bracken, Kelseyville
