SPEAKOUT

More sales tax is ripoff

THE POLITICAL parasites are at it again in Cape. The city cannot support itself. Taxpayers living out of the city, watch your money. Cape is after it. We are paying for your streets now. This is a ripoff. Will we be able to vote on the sales tax for water that we will never use? We have fine shopping in Jackson. We pay less sales tax here. People living in the suburbs pay their way. We don't ask Cape to pay our bills. Stop shopping in Cape and see what happens to Cape. We keep you alive, so stop ripping us off. Thanks a lot.

Sales tax on newspapers

I WAS over at a convenience store, and they charged sales tax on the newspaper that I bought in the store. I didn't know if that was allowed or not. I'd never been charged sales tax on a paper.

REPLY: Yes, Missouri imposed a sales tax on newspapers several years ago. The store was correct to collect the sales tax.

Taxpayers were misled

CAPE GIRARDEAU city officials and city staff lied to all taxpayers on the great benefit of the taking over of Union Electric waterworks a couple of years ago. Will the 59 percent water hike last one or two years?

Time to use rainy-day money

I'M CALLING in about the comment about Cape County government having set aside revenue for a rainy day. In case you haven't noticed, it has been raining a lot. Our local county roads that should be graveled are down to the bedrock in the northwest part of the county. There are no county officials who live out here, so they don't maintain the roads to the same extent they do around those same county officials' homes. We'd like to have gravel on our county roads. Take some of that money for the rainy day and use it.

NASCAR coverage

I THANK the Southeast Missourian for running the section on NASCAR, the world's biggest spectator sport. We really appreciate it. It's about time.

Hunters, close the gates

TWICE THIS week, my neighbor has had to chase his cattle down and return them to their pasture because some turkey hunters have left the gates open. This man owns a lot of land and doesn't mind anybody hunting as long as they display a little courtesy and decency. If when entering another man's property you open a gate, close it immediately. It's no wonder that more and more farmers are not allowing anyone to hunt when people cannot even close a gate behind them.

Higher-paying jobs are there

IN REGARD to the minimum-wage increase, I'm against it completely. I'm a 30-something high school dropout. I'm not union, but I make well above minimum wage. The company I work for will start you at $7 an hour, yet they cannot find enough people who want to work. So those of you who have not got the gumption to find something a little better, quit your crying. A minimum-wage increase will only drive up consumer costs. Clinton's 1993 tax increase hurt all of us who are working and trying to make a living.

Cut taxes first

IF YOU really want to help people who are working for minimum wage, cut their taxes instead of raising the minimum wage.

Act like a Christian

I JUST finished reading Speak Out, and I noticed two or three people say they are Christians. I notice lots of articles like that in Speak Out. Why does everybody feel the need to call in and say they're Christian? Does that mean that I should read your comment or you have some kind of credence, that I should listen to you now because you call and say "I'm a Christian" in Speak Out? What will really change people's lives and what will really change the things you complain about is maybe if you begin to live and act like a Christian in the community. People will begin to notice something different in your life and want a little bit of what you've got.

Too much hiding in the dark

TO THE person who was upset about the strong sermon, I'm sure it was upsetting because the truth really hurts. Our pastor also has preached on this same thing. If you walk into a movie theater or watch half these shows on television, it's even more graphic and violent. The really sad thing is what's going on in our hospitals all across this nation. I applaud the pastor for having enough nerve to stand up and say something about it. Too many Christians have hidden in the dark about these things. If it wasn't actually happening and these things weren't going on, we wouldn't have to talk about them. But people need to know what's truly going on. That it is not just a little mass of tissue that they are disposing of. It's a fully formed baby that they are killing.

Move away from noise

THIS IS to all the people who call the cops and complain about the PA system at the baseball game. You need to move way in the country where there's no noise so you'll be happy and leave us alone to let us play our baseball games.

Paying city employees

I'M CALLING in reference to the city council's recent decision on pay raises. I'd like to say that our police department is not the only division that is underpaid. In comparison to other surrounding communities in a 100-mile radius, some half the size of Cape Girardeau, the starting pay is $4 to $6 more an hour than Cape's in a particular division. After working for several years, my particular division is still $4 an hour under the starting pay of the communities I've checked on. We've also had no across-the-board-raise in two years, and with a 7 percent cost-of-living increase, everyone is living paycheck to paycheck, one step ahead of poverty. That, coupled with a increased workload because qualified personnel cannot be hired at this poverty pay scale, is causing high stress and several disgruntled employees as postal workers are. So our negotiations board asked for a mere $1 across-the-board raise to compensate somewhat for the things I mentioned. So do you think our city council agreed to help our employees? Wrong. They gave us a mere one percent raise to add to our pay-plan raise. Just adding insult to injury. We have a lot of pride for our city and work hard to keep it beautiful. Just think back not very long ago to spring cleanup week. So citizens, do you think it's fair? I don't know how the city council can sleep at night. I truly know the feeling of being oppressed.

Don't dwell on minimum wage

IT'S REALLY very simple on the minimum wage law raise. You see if the boss can't afford to pay the wage to his workers, he simply does triple duty everyday by himself. Open up, wait on customers, stock work, make change, stay until midnight, then close up. If this is too much for him, then he closes the doors and simply goes out of business. What's all the excitement about? He either does it one way or the other. Don't dwell on it.

Two crooks at the top

THIS LONG investigation into Whitewater proves to me that we have two liars, two crooks, the leaders of this country in our White House. Now that is shameful and disgraceful.

Why not lower minimum wage?

IF AN increase in the minimum wage would increase prices, increase unemployment and lower profits, thus putting some businesses out of business, doesn't it seem logical that lowering the minimum wage would result in lower prices, lower unemployment, increase profits and more businesses starting up. Therefore according to legislators and some of our people, lowering the minimum wage would be the answer.

Trash charges aren't fair

IN REGARD to the comment that the trash charge sounds fair at $12.13 a month plus $1 for each additional bag: I don't think that's fair at all. What about the people who have larger families? Three bags a week now. We still have to take an extra four or five bags a month to the dump and pay additional there because we need to be able to put out four bags of trash. What's wrong a limit of five bags a week? What's wrong with it being cleaned up and nice and orderly? Why can't we do that? We're going to be charged $15 a week for trash. All the bills are already high enough. How is a minimum-wage person at $4.25 an hour supposed to keep paying all their bills with two children? It's just ridiculous.

Charge less for less trash

I AGREE with the person in Speak Out who commented that they only have one large container of trash and they're still being charged $12 for it. If the city goes to a per bag cost, I think they ought to start at the very beginning and put the per bag cost down to $2 or $3 for the residents who do not have two bags a week. Many families here in town already recycle and have less, yet they're still paying $12. Seems like an awfully high price. Or perhaps some would choose to have to trash picked up every other week or once a month. $12 is far too much for a trash bag a month full of garbage.

Video shows insincerity

I'D LIKE to respond to the reader last week who called in commending President Clinton on his sincerity and how he does everything right, talking about his speech at the Ron Brown funeral. If you've ever seen the little video clip that Rush Limbaugh has been showing as Clinton leaves Brown's funeral, he's laughing and whooping it up. Then he catches a glimpse of that camera and breaks into tears immediately. You ought to see this movie if you think he's sincere. Try not to watch it after you eat.

Take care of Medicare

I WANT to comment about the deficit in the Medicare program. It seems like it's turned out now that the Republicans were right and Clinton was lying to the public. The Medicare program has a bigger deficit and is going broke a lot quicker than they thought it was. I wonder if the American public won't finally get enough of these lies that he's been telling. This is just a sample. He's told a lot more lies on the deficit and on these 8 million jobs he's made, 8 million hamburger-flipping jobs, and he made them in Mexico besides. Something better be done about Medicare, or there's not even going to be any Medicare.