Measure 30’s surcharge is progressive, fair
Be clear when you mark your ballot on Measure 30. A yes vote will provide temporary funding to sustain programs and services essential to our state’s future prosperity. Approval of Measure 30 will ensure that the state’s 2003-05 budget, passed by a bipartisan majority of the Oregon House and Senate, will protect education, public safety and social services from devastating cuts.
Since the state has the primary responsibility for funding public schools, the League of Women Voters believes that the state must provide sufficient funds to give each child an equal, adequate education. Business leaders across the state have indicated that the recruitment of new companies and the jobs they bring are being adversely affected by the condition of our schools and the uncertainty of school funding.
The league supports Measure 30’s temporary income tax surcharge because it is progressive (those who earn less, pay less), compatible with federal law and is fair. Measure 30 is responsible because it avoids borrowing that mortgages Oregon’s future prosperity. Oregonians have been misled by statements that additional cuts and additional borrowing at premium interest rates are better than temporary tax increases. Data from the failure of Measure 28 in January 2003 clearly indicates a crisis in the court system, human suffering from lack of housing and medications, shortened school years and crowded classrooms.
League members urge you to carefully weigh the benefits of Measure 30 as compared to the negative results of its failure. Vote yes on Ballot Measure 30.

Janet Calvert

president

League of Women Voters of Lane County

Spending on sports center shoots through the roof
I guess the University of Wisconsin’s new (1998) Kohl Center must be made of cheese. How else could this multi-purpose, $76.4 million facility — which seats 17,142 for basketball, 14,000 for hockey and between 15,000 and 17,000 for concerts, and includes 2,200-square-foot state-of-the-art locker areas and the Nicholas-Johnson (practice) Pavilion and Plaza, located in the heart of campus — have been built?
The University wants to be ranked with the “big boys” and I think Madison is well within those desirable ranks. So, I ask, why does our arena have to cost the sky and the moon?
At the current projected cost of $180 million, the price tag per seat for one of those 15,000 basketball-only seats is $12,000. Yikes! Outlandish? You bet.

Christine Sundt

visual resources curator

Architecture & Allied Arts Library

Stories focus on Israel, but ignore conflict
Thank you for expanding the thoughts of University students with Steven Neuman’s recent travelogue from Israel (“Visit to Israel reveals opposing images,” Jan. 8; “Playing the tourist,” Jan. 15). Any attempt at interesting students in the world outside their own city, state, or nation should be rewarded. These stories are particularly welcome if they address the human side of an issue, as Neuman’s article did.
Unfortunately, Neuman glazed over any and all issues regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He exclaims his shock at how well the Israeli people handle the stress of attacks. Yet where are his descriptions of the daily life of Palestinians? How do the Palestinian people deal with roadblocks, curfews, extraordinary unemployment, a divided country, land theft, etc.?
Jared Paben’s coverage of the recognition given Lach Litwer (“An international education,” Jan. 16) suffers the same blind eye. He quotes Litwer, “There’s nobody in Israel who hasn’t lost a family member.” How about that there isn’t a family in Palestine who hasn’t lost a family member, or had a family member illegally arrested? He shudders at the need for a security wall, yet where is the grief over Palestinians kept out of Green Line Israel, where the jobs are, or away from their homes? How about the tens of millions of Palestinians who are refuges from their homes?

Jeffrey Stout

Eugene