Letters for June 16, 2022

County stingy with pay

My wife is a former victim advocate of Spokane County prosecutor’s office, serving the county for over 11 years. No matter how the tax receipts of the county increased over that period, union-represented, non-attorney staff of that office (who often work the hardest) rarely received cost-of-living adjustments. Several years ago, a study of comparable salaries with other counties showed Spokane County to be consistently and significantly lower in pay than other comparable counties. I believe this is representative of the County as a whole.

Nevertheless, over the last four years of her employment, no raises of any kind were offered. This served as a functional pay cut every year. This trend has resulted in a heavy loss of good employees from the department, including my wife, as they could no longer afford to remain there.

Two things are happening simultaneously now: the cost of living is increasing sharply, and Spokane County is experiencing a windfall in property tax increases due to the spike in property values in the county (“Record Housing Prices hit Spokane County,” June 8).

The County Commission has a responsibility to stop the functional pay cuts and stop starving out their employees through refusal to keep up with costs of living here. Department heads like the county prosecutor should be their greatest advocates. The windfall means there is no excuse not to give these hard working employees what they deserve. These decisions are directly in the hands of the Commissioners. It is time to do the right thing.

Jim Wehde

Spokane

Weapon for wars

AR-15-type rifles are chambered for the 5.56 millimeter NATO cartridge. This cartridge fires a very small bullet at a very high velocity. When it enters a human body it tumbles and veers off in any direction, crushing bone and destroying organs. It was designed to kill or severely incapacitate an enemy so that he is no longer a threat. The 5.56 NATO cartridge performs this task staggeringly well. The 5.56 NATO cartridge is a weapon of war.

Michael Moore

Liberty Lake

Vote for CMR opponent

Much has been said and written in the last two weeks as to what “we” can do to reduce tragedies like those in Buffalo and Uvalde.

To the vast majority of us, the elimination of semi-automatic rifles and high capacity magazines is one of the most obvious remedies available.

However, this, and other effective measures, can only be accomplished through federal legislation. Therefore, the only way “we” can affect this is to elect federal legislators who support rational gun control legislation.

It is relatively easy to determine which candidates support such legislation. The NRA publishes a detailed scorecard for all political candidates ranking them from A+ to F, with higher scoring candidates being the most reliable anti-gun control voters.

Cathy McMorris Rogers earned an “A” from the NRA in the 2020 scorecard. This indicates that almost without exception, she has voted against proposed gun control laws.

So, what can “we” do? The answer is obvious. Vote for whoever runs against CMR in the upcoming general election. Only when the House of Representatives and the Senate are no longer under the control of the NRA can we hope to see meaningful legislation that will begin to reduce the carnage we have seen over the last several years.

James Clanton

Spokane Valley

Cares only about taxes

Chris Cargill is paid by Washington Policy Center to write opinion pieces for the S-R, such as last week’s clarion call for transparency in negotiations between city government and unions (“Who will defend the taxpayers? Not the city or its unions,” June 8). As usual for Cargill and WPC, citizenship begins and ends with paying taxes.

As a citizen who has spent a lifetime contributing to the profits of the businesses and owners who make up WPC, I would also like some transparency. How much have I paid for each one of Cargill’s cookie-cutter opinions?

William Siems

Spokane