Renters, landlords should take more of the tax burden

Why are homeowners always in the forefront for taxes? With all the apartments going up in the area, the property owner should pay an average home tax tax for each apartment, just like we pay for each home. Their tenants benefit from city programs just like home owners. If this is a problem, maybe a tax should be placed on the renters to pay for some of the deficit. Homeowners are not any better off and can’t afford a 17% or 18% tax hike.

— William Graham, Allentown

Do doctors bear obligation to reduce healthcare costs?

In his Sept. 7 Your View, “Why it’s so hard to make ends meet in the Lehigh Valley,” Dr. Chaudhry makes a confusing argument: He compares the $35,000 a year earned by warehouse workers to the median cost of a home of $360,000 and then states that two full-time paychecks ($70,000) would be insufficient to purchase a home. First-time home buyers in the Lehigh Valley pay about $280,000, which is affordable by a couple with a household income of $70,000. And, the median worker in the Valley earns much more than a warehouse worker, almost $31 an hour or about $64,000 a year. While I agree with the doctor that localities should do the right thing and relax zoning laws to allow smaller homes, I wonder if doctors also have a moral obligation to reduce what they charge for medical care?

— Frank R. Gunter, Bethlehem Township

Labor Day columns highlighted different economic models

The Labor Day Your View pieces were excellent commentaries: The current free-market capitalism “makes it hard to get by in the Lehigh Valley,” written by an oral surgeon whose patients are more worried about missing work than the pain of the procedure. The “economic model that fits everyone” explains the benefits for workers in employee-owned companies.

Workers owning “the means of production” is the definition of communism. Between capitalism and communism is socialism, defined as government ownership of business and industry. Socialism includes government investment in corporations, which our president has done.

Unfortunately, the words for these three economic systems are incorrectly being used by politicians to label their opponents. Often they confuse these economic systems with political ones, which they are not. Our political choices are simple — democracy or authoritarianism.

— John K. Smith Jr., Bethlehem

Federal cuts by Republicans contribute to local tax increases

I noticed a few recent letters lamenting that, by electing Democrats, taxes automatically increase. Maybe the writers should research why our taxes must increase.

Of course, costs have increased for everything, but also President Trump dramatically cut funds to states to give the rich a huge tax break. Now, since states’ funding was cut, that also trickles down. The states had to cut their funding to local governments. So now there are shortfalls in local funding and also to our schools. So what do our local governments have to do? Why, raise taxes of course.

So instead of pointing the finger at local Democrats, let’s also look at Republicans and Trump. That “Big, Beautiful Bill” and other tax cuts just cost all of us a lot of money.

— John Kostick, Whitehall Township

Siegel’s attacks on ICE were political, waste of time

Lehigh County Executive Josh Siegel, with the support of some Democratic cronies on the Board of Commissioners, used board meetings to make members of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement look bad. They went so far as to try to pass a resolution prohibiting county employees from cooperating with ICE agents who were trying to do their federally mandated work.

Siegel, in his zeal to make members of his opposition political party agency look bad in the eyes of voters, was reckless and brutal with the truth in his attempt to justify not cooperating with ICE.

Siegel implied that partisan politics had a place at board meetings.

Although ICE follows the law and targets immigrants in the country illegally without regard to skin color, with the worst criminals first, Siegel implied agents are racist.

Siegel said ICE targeted Americans, which is illegal, but he didn’t say it was caused by flawed identification or databases, not ICE.

Siegel’s political sham wasted hundreds of hours. The time could have been better used to improve the lives of residents.

— Jack Sedovy, Whitehall Township

Novel approach to resolving climate change concerns

A recent letter to the editor has awakened me to a tragic situation that could have been avoided if we would all just eat less meat. The terrible flooding in Nepal was possibly caused by cow flatulence and the methane that they emit, which exacerbates global warming.

It got me thinking about human flatulence (did I really just say that?), and a quick online search verified my greatest fears … we humans also emit methane when we expel gas.  There’s a whole lot more of us than there are cows. Therefore I strongly suggest that our government pass an ordinance to forbid us from expelling our gas outdoors.  Yes, it will be a bit uncomfortable for us, but if it saves our planet, we’ll just have to hold it in for the sake of humanity. I’m feeling like I’m about to burst here, so am heading indoors to relieve my gaseous condition.

— Ron Grate, Lower Macungie Township 

Do college football players truly deserve to be paid?

Perhaps when people also start paying college students with a 4.0 grade-point average, I’ll start watching college football again.

— Stephen Vengrove, Bethlehem

The Morning Call publishes letters from readers online and in print several times a week. Submit a letter to the editor at letters@mcall.com. The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author(s), and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication.

Election letters

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