Speak Out A 05/12/02

Revenue ideas

COME ON, Cape, the solution is so obvious for your money woes: Hire more police. The ones you have are quite zealous about writing tickets. Just imagine if you hired officers who actually got violators for using the middle lane as a merge lane. How about getting people who follow too closely, have no clue what right-of-way is, yield at stop signs and stop at yield signs? Or, perhaps, catching people who think their turn signal is merely a Christmas decoration that, when used two days a year, must be left on for miles and miles and never actually used for a turn. I see great potential here. Imagine how much could be made if those officers actually enforced the law on everyone, not just the younger people of this area. Then let's enforce the law on the officers themselves. Imagine the revenue.

Commercial taxation

HERE IS a idea that perhaps was overlooked by the think tank concerning more revenue for our city. It's time we look at a commercial property-tax increase. It's time we let corporate executives with all their tax shelters pay their fair share. After all, these companies and businesses benefit from both the locals and the out-of-towners. I understand that this idea may not be popular with our chamber of commerce, but it does seem to be the fairest way to get the funds the city needs. Of course, operating within our means would also help a lot.

Not representing us

WHAT KIND of a politician is state Sen. Peter Kinder when he says he knows the people in his district are against the stadium bill but he will vote for it anyway? You cannot call him a representative of the people in his district. I guess that is why we call him a senator.

Fewer federal employees

A SHORTAGE of federal judges may be just what the doctor ordered. Now if we can start cutting down on the number of executive-branch and legislative-branch employees, we'll be making some real headway. Trimming the size of federal government is a conservative credo if there ever was one.

Forced to think

MORAL RELATIVISM does obscure the truth, but it doesn't vanquish it. It merely requires one to think long and hard about difficult ethical and moral questions. Others who are -- dare I say? -- on the lazy side address these complex issues in simplistic, absolutist fashion.

Financing the Cards

THE ST. Louis Cardinals want taxpayers to pay to keep them from leaving Missouri. The way they are playing now, I think we should take a collection to send them out of the state.

Need four-way stop

CHAFFEE NEEDS to install another stop sign at Elliot and Fourth streets, making a four-way stop, to slow down the many speeders on Elliot before some child is killed or injured.

City should cut spending

I THINK Cape Girardeau should do like the rest of us have to do. When our expenses exceed our income, we have to cut expenses. The city needs to cut its expenses. One suggestion is to get more production out of city employees. Another is to not buy equipment but to maintain old equipment. Try this method until our country's economy gets better.

Clean out the ditches

THERE IS no excuse for roads in southern Missouri to be under water every time we get a little rain. If the county road crews would clean out the ditches, they would flow freely. The Little River Drainage District needs to clean its ditches, too. If the ditches aren't cleaned out, we will just be a flooded county as it was before the ditches were dug. Property owners don't have the equipment to keep the ditches clean.

Result of no P&Z

IF YOU want to see what can happen when we don't have county planning and zoning, just drive out three miles west of Jackson on Highway 72. You can do as you please on your own land regardless of what it does to your neighbor.