Readers
Ltd release: Desperately seeking . . . Citizen
I am sending this letter in several directions in hope of a positive response.
I have been reading the Citizen for more than 16 years, having enjoyed it immensely.
In particular, I’ve enjoyed your coverage of the city of Tucson, especially exciting changes that you seem to cover much better than your rival.
Just one of many examples was your extensive coverage last week on the changes coming to the Value Village Thrift Shop on Fourth Avenue.
I was wondering about that very topic when your story appeared, with full historical background and all.
Imagine my concern when it is becoming harder all the time to pick up a copy of the Citizen.
About 2 p.m. Monday, I was driving north along Oracle Road and stopped at a Circle K to buy my daily copy. They were sold out.
I drove farther north and stopped at a Circle K at Oracle and Hardy.
A man in front of me bought the last (only) copy. The clerk confirmed that only one copy a day was being delivered!
I finally got my copy at the Circle K in Catalina. The clerk there said the same thing: Just one copy a day was being delivered to them!
You may be preparing to say your goodbyes, but why throw in the towel?
It’s obvious these locations could sell more than one copy. When the only copies are sold by 2 p.m., that is a sign that more could and would be sold if they were available.
To only make one copy available to these stores is a shame.
Last fall, we could buy the Citizen in Oracle. Then our Circle K manager told me the Citizen couldn’t find anyone to bring the paper up to them anymore, a loss of even more customers.
Because I work in Tucson, I can buy my copy on the way home. But why should I have to stop at multiple locations just to nab one?
I’ve been trying to buy it every day since your announcement of the Citizen’s imminent departure, to do my part to keep it alive. But please do your part as well.
At least make the paper available to those of us who still wish to buy it. March 21 is still more than a month away.
Raymond J. Santoro
Oracle
Will pen pal find forum, or just a new answer?
The projected demise of the Citizen depresses me.
Over the last years, when someone would ask me what I did, I would reply that I got published in the Citizen a lot.
Now I will have to find a new answer.
Anyway, it was a good run and I want to thank you for the dozens of times you published my words.
Good luck to everybody.
Cletis Harry Beegle
State rep budgets time to reduce Napolitano
No legislator enjoyed the tough decisions we made on the fiscal 2009 budget last week.
The correction would have been far less dramatic had those reductions begun two years ago, when signs of our economic downturn started.
Gov. Janet Napolitano ignored the indicators, however, and instead increased discretionary spending, disguising it as “investments.”
The state didn’t have the money to cover those investments, so she instituted accounting and borrowing schemes, hoping the economy would recover, camouflaging her mismanagement.
But every citizen has had a front-row seat watching as Arizona’s economy worsens.
Our shortfall is so profound that lawmakers must deal not only with a structural deficit – where spending exceeds revenues – but also with an immediate cash flow deficit.
Arizona may soon struggle to pay its most basic expenses.
The correction was a responsible way to ensure the state meets its $1.6 billion obligations the last five months of this fiscal year.
Unfortunately, Napolitano’s borrowing schemes require massive interest payments.
Arizona’s economy is so bad, not even new taxes could help. The revenue could not come in fast enough to affect the deficit.
Left with few options, the Legislature acted swiftly and decisively, sending a responsible budget to Gov. Jan Brewer. She called the Legislature into special session after her first week in office, something Napolitano failed to do her last several months.
The House has begun to work on the 2010 deficit, which looms even larger at $3.3 billion.
Experts predict the state’s downturn will be over by year’s end, followed by a slow recovery in 2010. As lawmakers, we must be innovative in our approach to resuscitate the economy to ensure Arizona emerges stronger and more economically vibrant.
John McComish
Arizona House majority leader
Bonuses for running country into the ground
President Obama is upset with the bonus arrangement with banks and investment business operations.
He needs to step back and look at the housing operations of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which are taking hundreds of billions of dollars to clean up with no end in sight.
The Democratic managers of these business operations picked up more than $90 million in bonus money to run these operations into the gorund.
As a senator, Obama was given $160,000 from the managers – for what? We certainly do need to clean up this bonus problem; we do need government intervention to run this country into the ground.
ROY MESSER