Oh, the unfairness of it

Oh, the unfairness of it

EDITOR:

According to The Vindicator’s March 9 report on county employees pay raises, only 300 employees in Mahoning County government received raises. Out of those 300 only 91 got a raise of 20 percent or more. The story goes on to inform us that as of Dec. 31, 2007 there are a total of 1,975 employees in our county government.

This leaves a whopping 1,884 employees who didn’t receive a raise of at least 20 percent.

I urge the passage of an additional half-percent sales tax to correct this problem.

After all, we must continue to develop the only growth industry left to us in Mahoning County — government.

SAM MOFFIE

Boardman

Youngstown board should stay home and make cuts

EDITOR:

On the three past elections the Youngstown Board of Education has asked for passage of a 9.5 mil tax levy. All three times the voters have said “no”. By this time a number of things should be very obvious as to why voters aren’t saying “yes”.

UVoters do not like to have their taxes increased unless there is a need and unless they are going to get their tax money spent wisely and honestly.

UThe board was and is responsible for the huge deficit. It must to take prompt and necessary action to run the school system in a business-efficient way, which it has not done.

UThe board does not know what is going on in the school buildings; they rely on a superintendent and her staff and are at her and their mercy. When a high school needs 44 surveillance cameras to monitor the actions of its students, something is very wrong. A school system cannot operate without discipline, and the board has not provided it.

UThe curriculum, especially 6 through 12 grades, is as antique as a Model T Ford. Too much time and money is spent on the college-bound student. Most students will not go to college: they need a training study-course to ready them for a job the minute after they graduate. If Dr. Sweet needs more students at YSU, he should look elsewhere.

UThe board cries “poor mouth” and has to have an oversight committee to monitor its spending, yet it appropriated $11,000 to send board members to Orlando, Fla. “to learn how to put on a tax levy”. That amount of money would buy 10 violins, 5 violas, and 4 cellos. For the little bit of learning they’re going to get, the musical instruments are a much better buy.

UThe board keeps talking about the cuts they are going to make. They should do it. Actions speak so loud that we voters will hear.

WILLIAM GRAEBING

Youngstown

Student, teach thyself

EDITOR:

I was greatly disappointed in the failure of the school and WRTA levies. I was shocked to read that two of the school board members were against the school levy. Why did they run for the board if they are not concerned about the education of inner city students?

Whatever happened to “we are our brothers’ keeper?”

How can personnel continue to be cut? At the rate cuts being made, our students will be teaching themselves or they’ll transfer to charter or private schools.

I was glad to read that Mr. Hagan had the courage to state that Youngstown has a high rate of racism. Some of the reason these levies failed was racism.

What do the white middle and upper class care whether the inner city children get a quality education. I also blame the governor and the state of Ohio for the same reason.

Why would the state allocate money for new schools and ignore the academic needs? I would rather see old buildings with high academics than new buildings with poor academics.

Regarding the buses; fortunately I have not had to ride the bus, but I sympathize with those who do.

I’m sure a quarter-percent tax would not have put anyone in the poor house.

What will people who depend solely on the bus for transportation do?

Until the citizens of Youngstown change their selfish ways, Youngstown will never prosper economically or academically.

ELLA L. TATE

Youngstown

Take bold action on energy

EDITOR:

It is with great sadness that I have to watch the price of gasoline go up almost every day. Our entire economy is based upon a reasonable fuel price which is easily attainable. The price of groceries and everything else we buy is dramatically affected by the price of diesel fuel which our trucking system has to use. This fuel price increase happens while our Congress continues to spend its time trying to prosecute baseball players, football players, and the NFL. When not doing this they spend their time trying to embarrass the president. Let me tell you about two ways to provide less expensive fuel.

The first would be to open to exploration the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve for oil. There is supposedly enough oil under this reserve to supply all our needs for 30 to 50 years. There are also other reserves that are not tapped because of silly environmental issues.

The second way would be to take around 100 of our brightest young scientists, send them to an isolated region of New Mexico or Arizona and charge them to develop alternative fuels. Is anyone old enough to remember the discovery of the atom bomb? Pay each of these scientists $100 millions of dollars for the successful development of alternative fuels. This cost could be recouped in a couple of months since we would no longer have to import oil. We could also sell our alternative energy process to other countries and use the proceeds to help reduce our national debt. I would love to tell the middle Eastern countries to try drinking their oil since we wouldn’t need it anymore.

Will either of these scenarios develop? No, because most of our government officials are indebted to the oil companies and must continue to support them. But, we cannot sustain our economy if the cost of gasoline is more than $4 per gallon and diesel even higher.

GEORGE GRIM

Youngstown