Tax on Food
Dear Editor: I agree with Bill Adickes Friday letter to the editor regarding sales tax on food. The tax on food is one of the most regressive of all taxes. I think it is time to consider a 1 mill property tax increase along with the removal of sales tax on food.
Susan Litman, Sitka
Public Service
Dear Editor: Public Service Recognition Week 2018 is May 6 to 12. As president of the Juneau chapter of NARFE, the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, I would like to explain what the Federal workforce does for you.
Some of the myriad duties federal employees perform every day touch you directly. To exemplify this, consider the various federal agencies your family members from down south will be served by during a summer visit to Alaska. For starters, they might drive to the airport on a road or highway that was designed and constructed to structural and safety standards developed by Federal Highway Administration engineers. They depart from a facility designed and built with federal airport improvement dollars, but not before going through TSA screening to ensure the safety of their flight. Your family’s aircraft is guided throughout its journey by FAA air traffic controllers using complex equipment (some of which was developed in Alaska) maintained by the agency’s skilled technicians.
After your family arrives in Sitka, you might visit the Sitka National Historical Park to take in a unique view of Alaska’s history and culture. The safety and enjoyment of your experience is assured by employees of the National Park Service. Going on a fishing charter? You might want to check the weather and maritime forecasts. This is made possible by the National Weather Service. Your safety and security while out on the bounding main is the responsibility of the United States Coast Guard. After your family goes home and writes a thank-you letter, it’s delivered to you by the U.S. Postal Service.
I retired from the Federal Aviation Administration in 2009 after having completed a 33-year career. As an active Fed, I was proud to serve the American public. I’m pretty sure that all other members of the public service community, share that sense of pride in their respective agencies. So, if you know, or are a friend or relative, of a public service employee or retiree, civilian or military, please take a moment this week to tell him or her, “Thank you for a job well done!”
David Epstein, Juneau
Parade of Species
Dear Editor: Sitkans crept, crawled, slithered, and photosynthesized down Lincoln street during the 17th annual Parade of the Species on Friday, April 20. Thank you to those who helped make this event a wildly good time by participating, sharing resources, and/ or time.
Thank you to Sitka Sound Science Center for your collaboration in organizing and hosting the post parade celebration that included a special home-coming for Pearl the octopus.
Thank you to those who provided engaging activities to make the celebration extra special: Citizen’s Climate Lobby, Fortress of the Bear, North Sister Smoothies, Southeast Alaska Independent Living, Alaska Raptor Center and Sitka Tribe of Alaska.
This year’s sponsors provided wonderful costume contest prizes, and snack donations: BackDoor Café, Sea Mart, Sitka Cirque and White’s Inc.
Sitka’s two most important resources are the natural environment, and our community’s youths who represent the future. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that they inherit a dependable natural environment that provides for them just as it has for the peoples who have lived here for over 10,000 years. The annual Earth Day Parade of Species gives us a chance to celebrate youth and our environment while committing ourselves to taking care of both. Stay wild,
Sitka Conservation Society
Senior Sales Tax
Dear Editor: To those who would do away with the senior sales tax exemption: Your actions speak louder than your words.
What did we ever do to you?
If the city needs more money, then why not tax where the money is, instead of picking on the most vulnerable in our community?
Why pick on us?
When we confronted those who promoted the repealing of the senior tax, we were humiliated and publicly told to apply for public assistance.
Really? That is your answer?
We are being crushed by the very city we are living in. Outrageous utilities? You can’t come up with the money? Well then, apply for public assistance.
Why pick on us? Must you publicly humiliate us too?
I am not shocked that you took the easy way out. Once again, singling out the weaker in the community for tax increases. I mean you can’t tax and upset those with the highest incomes. They are the ones with the power and influence.
But I am very shocked for the selfish self-centered attitude of the ‘‘haves’’ in our community, who always expect more out of the ‘‘have nots.’’
What did we do to you? Why did you pick on us?
David R. Rice,
Retired and trying to survive in Sitka on a very limited income
