Parks, Wildlife Initiative

* The Times’ support of Prop. 180 (editorial, May 15) leaves out one important element: the source of the funds to repay the bonds and interest. That money will come out of the state general fund, which will be badly out of whack next year.

Those parks and wildlife bonds will cost taxpayers an average of $142 million in principal and interest for 25 years. If all the bond measures on the June ballot pass, the total obligation will be $422 million a year. And no telling what additional bond measures we can expect ahead, for such things as more prisons and schools.

To make things balance, the Legislature will again have to take money away from schools and local government. Parks and wildlife are important, but of lower priority than our education and safety.

ALLEN P. McCOMBS

Chino

* On a recent trip on Highway 89 to Markleeville, stopping along the curving road at Monitor Pass, I looked across the divide over the valley below, stretching out like a pale green painting framed in chocolate brown, with patches of a giant’s snow cone on the mountain peaks. Along the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada, 7,500 feet elevation, is some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, I imagine. The widening sweep of jagged mountain tops encircles the blue of Bridgeport Lake. Few who have traveled this route to Bodie State Historic Park will forget it, even the washboard road that goes with the Bodie experience, a unique view of the 1877 mining “ghost” town kept as near as possible in the state of arrested decay, with buildings not restored but preserved, down to the last creaking hinge on the dry goods store’s door or the Miners Union Hall stage curtain. It is imperative that this park, and other California state parks benefit from funding provided by Prop. 180 for upkeep and maintenance. We must pass this bond issue. We must protect and operate safe park and recreation facilities, leading to jobs and more tourism, but also for coming generations to appreciate California history.

JULIA FOSTER

Palos Verdes