Reforms would hurt business

I am very concerned with the health care reforms being discussed now in Congress, because small business owners will be paying for the increase in health care costs through higher taxes and more bureaucracy. How does that make sense? I thought the goal of health care reform was to make health care less expensive!

-- Jim Gilles

Bird Creek

OK, Levi, it's time to grow up

Levi Johnston is being immature. He needs to stop fighting with Sarah Palin!

-- Katey Lamberson

Anchorage

Rein in the school budget

In the rush to save the city budget the recurring suggestion to institute a sales tax comes up. A tax is a tax. It still comes out of your pocket.

We don't have a money problem; we have a spending problem. The biggest consumer of taxes is the school board, the same organization that suddenly finds $11 million to plug a maintenance hole unfilled by constant bond requests.

Someone think outside the box here and reign in the school budget. We lavish them with money and get consistent mediocre results while hoping more money is the answer.

A sales tax will only give those with an insatiable hunger for our money the means to spread the pain around so to be less noticeable. Leave the libraries alone; they're one of the few things worth the money.

-- William Ahrens

Eagle River

'Change' just smoke, mirrors

I thought Congress would have realized that their constituents are facing tough economic times, but with the current health care reform debate, they obviously have not. The price tag for the health care plan by Congress would cost billions. And where does that money come from? It would come from taxes and penalties. So the "change" that we were told about in the past election was just smoke and mirrors, because it's the same old story, putting taxes on the backs of all working Americans, rich and poor.

-- Pete Thering

Anchorage

Anchorage needs corridor

Michael Howard's Compass piece (Oct. 27) shows poor understanding of the transportation needs of a modern community.

I have been very critical of some of the alternative corridors chosen for study. However, I do think this project is required for Anchorage's future growth. The very professional H2H staff needs to study the best alternatives available even if the Gambell-Ingra option seems to be the obvious choice.

Howard suggests that transit and demand management have not been considered. On the contrary, transit and demand management have (in my opinion) been given far too big a role in the H2H planning process. About 2 percent of trips in the Bowl use the People Mover. It's unlikely that transit would ever carry enough people to make a significant dent in traffic congestion.

He derides the "cut and cover" portion of the freeway for noise and pollution, but these portions emit less noise, and pollution will be reduced below that of stop-and-go traffic on the city arterials they replace.

A covered freeway would indeed beautify Fairview!

-- Donald N. Anderson

Anchorage

ADVERTISEMENT