Proposition 1
Dear Editor: To survive you need water, food and shelter.
For water, Sitka has about a 130 inches of rain a year and that will keep most people.
For food, Southeast Alaska has lots of fish and deer and berries and a vegetable garden can be grown.
A house or apartment or shelter, is not free for the taking and is probably the biggest expense most people will have in a lifetime. So why take a chance on losing your shelter to government by adding more expense, or tax, and government will take your shelter if you don’t pay or can’t pay your taxes.
There are many better ways for the city of Sitka to raise revenue that won’t cause some people to lose their shelter.
Phil Wiley, Sitka
Mill Rate, Election
Dear Editor: Two thoughts from my point of view. First, I sure don’t want to see the mill rate go up – but even more than that, I don’t want to see Sitka go down the tubes. I am voting for the 2 mill increase because I really, really value Sitka and I feel as citizens we need to help out in these difficult times. I would rather make the financial sacrifice to keep the great quality of life and services and schools and infrastructure we now enjoy.
Second point. I have known Sheila Finkenbinder since I arrived in town and had the opportunity to work with her, she is competent and gets things done. I have also known Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins about the same amount of time, and I voted for him in the past two elections and will vote for him again this time for many reasons. I am puzzled about how the state can be $4 billion in the hole. It is the majority of the state legislators that took us to where we are today. Why send more of the same party to be in the Legislature? I think we need new people who have shown they can stand up to big oil. Anchorage just had seven incumbents lose their seats, two of them Democrats, who voted with the majority. I think we need to keep JKT and get other new folks in the Legislature to make necessary changes and support Gov. Walker, who has shown he has the backbone to face problems and attempt to do something about them, unlike the majority who frittered away time and money during the special sessions and did nothing productive, except maybe collected more per diem.
Jeff Budd, Sitka
