People Who Helped Clean Up Greenwood Get Thank You
I would like to thank all of the people who volunteered their time and efforts to help clean up Greenwood Memorial Park for Memorial Day. To all of you who spent days there to get it done in time for the holiday, you people are great.
It was good to be able to talk to some of you and get to hear your stories on family friends and why you were doing it. I want to thank the people who brought their riding lawn mowers down to get it done faster. Also, I want to thank the ones who brought their weed cutters to go around each and every gravestone in their area.
A special thank you goes out to the young people who were there helping to pick up the grass and move it to the piles and doing raking around the graves. I do not know all of your names but you know who you are.
Also, a special thank you to Ernie Clark for bringing in his escalator and his nephew for moving the limbs and the stumps in areas. Also for mowing the Veterans Spanish and Civil War areas and the main section.
To all who I have not mentioned, thank you. If I don’t see you at the cemetery, see you next year.
Troy Houghtaling Sr.
Centralia
Maybe Someone Should Turn Out Olympia Lights
So, once again our elected representatives in Olympia have decided they don’t need to be bound to finish their work in the time frame allotted them.
Some years back I worked for the Office of Services to Children and Families in Hillsboro, Oregon. They had a similar problem with their staff. Their solution? At the appointed hour the lead worker simply turned off the lights and left the building. Problem solved. Wish we had the guts to do the same.
Mark C. Shetterly
Ryderwood
Capital Gains Tax Affects More Than the Wealthy
The Democratic-proposed capital gains tax has been advertised as a tax on the super wealthy, but that just isn’t true. A capital gains tax is levied on the sale of all personal property except a primary residence, retirement accounts and just a few other exemptions.
There are many people in Lewis County who are not fortunate enough to work for a company that provides a pension. For these people, their retirement income comes from many sources.
There are contractors who might pick up a few rental homes along the way during their career, and when retirement comes, they sell the homes to pay for their expenses. They are not super wealthy; however, for one year only, they are considered to be one of the “rich.” The gain from the sale of that rental will be taxed as a capital gain.
The same goes for many farmers. They may have several pieces of property, and while they are not usually considered wealthy, they would be hit with a capital gains tax if they were to sell a piece of property to pay for their retirement.
State workers like me have a guaranteed pension. No capital gains tax will be levied against that retirement, but our neighbors who have invested in other ways will pay a steep price. That makes this a tax on the middle class.
In the big picture of the state budget, the amount of capital gains tax collected would be a relatively small amount. As a result, it is very likely that each year, the percentage will go up and the threshold will go down. At a certain point it will become an actual income tax and will affect even more of the middle class.
The idea that this is a tax only on the super-rich is largely a myth. Very wealthy people have the resources available to avoid paying high taxes. They have attorneys and accountants who may arrange their income in such a way as to minimize the taxes they pay.
We already see that with the estate tax. While some people go to Arizona after they retire so they can soak up the sun, many wealthy people move there because Arizona repealed their estate tax in 2004. Taxing people changes their behavior.
Finally, if you look at business literature countrywide, Washington is always named as a great place to do business. One of the major reasons listed for this good rating is that we have no state income or capital gains tax.
That benefit just barely offsets the onerous B&O tax that is levied on all our businesses. If we create a capital gains tax, we will no longer be rated highly as a place to do business — even worse news for middle class workers looking for jobs.
The capital gains tax is a lose-lose proposition, and it is bad policy. Don’t be fooled by those who advertise it as a way to get money from the rich. It just isn’t so.
Ruth Peterson
Curtis
New Democrats Have Damaged Country
To Proud Democrat:
All that you mentioned is in the past. The new Democrats, if you can call them that, have done much damage to our country. Yes, the Republicans have done little to nothing to stop them.
Are you proud of the following:
Benghazi
The racial tension
The cop killing
Fast and Furious
The invitation to cross our border illegally
Giving amnesty and tax dollars to people who are breaking the law to be here
Open borders to terrorists
Sharia law here in America
The assault on our gun rights
Assault on free speech, all in the name of political correctness
Releasing back into society illegals who are convicted of crimes, just because they are illegals
Giving up five terrorists, the worst of them, for one deserter, while military personnel who have committed no crimes and served honorably are still imprisoned and our president ignores them
Arming Homeland Security and disarming our military
Court martialing even chaplains who pray in Jesus’ name
As I said, our country has been damaged. God help us.
Shirley Balch
Bucoda
Food Handlers Need
to Show Caution
It seems that one homeless person has found fault with one church in Centralia that is providing food and clothes to the needy.
I am told of an incident at Gather Church where one food handler was serving food without gloves on his hands and eating a hot dog while serving.
I thank the people who give their precious time for the community. It would be a disaster for a foodborne illness to originate because of an overlooked handler not paying attention to the rules.
Steve Shaw
Crosby, North Dakota
