Readers
Caught in a trap, Az not singing Janet’s praises
In one episode of Fox’s underappreciated early 1990s western comedy “The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.,” the heroes teamed up with a sheriff to pursue a group of bad guys into a local mine.
The bad guys gave them the slip and then closed the mine entrance with dynamite.
The sheriff, who resembled a 1972-era Elvis Presley, declared in a Tupelo drawl, “We’re caught in a trap! Can’t walk out!”
Arizona legislators today find themselves caught in a trap that they won’t easily be able to walk out of. Former Gov. Janet Napolitano led the legislature to pass truly reckless budgets, driving spending up at a rate far faster than income growth.
As real estate bubble revenue came pouring in, lawmakers made long-term spending commitments with short-term revenue sources.
The trap? Republicans must either roll this spending back to match revenues or increase taxes to preserve Napolitano’s legacy. Napolitano can watch the Republicans step on these bear traps from the safe distance of Washington, D.C.
The use of the plural in describing traps is deliberate. The Republicans have already enraged lobbies by fixing the badly imbalanced Napolitano budget from last year.
Having stepped on that trap, will they panic and stumble onto the next trap, raising taxes? This would incur the wrath of those who prefer low taxes and a smaller government, i.e. their base and the majority of Arizonans who put them into office.
There are no easy options, but some options are worse than others. In fiscal 2004, the General Fund was $6.5 billion. In 2007, it was $10.2 billion.
The party was fun while it lasted, but our revenue is coming in at 2004 levels, so we need to get our spending back to 2004 levels, too.
Napolitano’s domination of Arizona Republicans will be complete if she forces them, from thousands of miles away, to raise taxes in order to preserve her vision of bigger government.
Matthew Ladner
vice president, research
Goldwater Institute
Phoenix
Don’t downgrade higher education
Re: the Monday opinion piece by Gary Rhoades (“Failing grade for Arizona higher education”):
Making public rankings of universities is akin to ranking investments.
The higher-ranking places find it easier to get grants, gifts and to recruit good faculty.
High ranking and good public service are not inconsistent values.
Not every child will benefit from a university education, so aspiring to pitch your services to the full population is not necessarily a smart move.
Pitch it to excellence. Encourage makeup classes for high school students on the margin in terms of preparation. Keep a high standard, a standard of excellence.
No one wants a truly second-rate university.
We want each citizen to be the best they can be.
The university isn’t the only institution involved. We need the right mix of high schools, technical education, community colleges and, yes, research universities.
Never seek to be the average; be the best at doing your part and encourage support of the other institutions as well.
Monty Brown
retired professor
Reader weighs in on restaurant reviewer
In my previous list of things I especially like about the Citizen, I left out Tom Stauffer’s restaurant reviews.
That man is a poet first and very discerning about flavors and the way things are prepared and go together. He isn’t focused on the ambiance.
When he likes a restaurant, he becomes rhapsodic. When he doesn’t like it, he provides delightful vitriol.
Please see that the Arizona Daily Star hires him if you really do have to close. He is too good to lose from our area.
June Wortman
Green Valley
Liberally, um, literally happy to see paper go
It is no mystery why this paper is going out of business. You can thank your ultra-left-leaning reporters.
You put that liberal Anne Denogean on the front page somehow blaming conservatives for the murderous actions of a University of Arizona student trying to kill her newborn (Friday column, “Women need access, not obstacles, to birth control”).
What a stretch to blame conservatives for this. If this student is so brilliant, as Anne said, wouldn’t she have known to take the baby to a safe haven?
No matter her state of mind when the baby was born, even a not-so-brilliant person would have made some plan. She had plenty of time to come up with a good plan.
Sorry, Anne, but no matter how you slant it, there is no excuse for her actions.
Anne truly hates conservatives. Good riddance to her and Billie Stanton.
It amazes me that this paper stopped caring about who their readers were. Any good business knows and caters to their customers.
As a subscriber since 1978, I am happy to see you go.
I wanted to quit long ago but kept going because of the TV guide, sports section and local news.
I will say a prayer for the full recovery of the baby. God bless this baby.
Carol Hines
retired
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