Car Fees Rise, Jobs Lost: Time for a Film Idol?

Re “Days Before Vote, Higher Vehicle Fees,” Sept. 29: I hope California voters don’t use the rise in vehicle fees as the basis for their vote on the recall. California auto fees have always been high, as they should be. We have the most cars; we have the most expensive cars; we have too many cars. Local police and fire departments are the primary beneficiaries of the vehicle tax. Do you want to give up that kind of protection and service to save a few dollars each week?

The candidates who promise to rescind the tax have not told us how they will cover the $4.2-billion shortfall that would result. There are no free lunches, people; you have to pay for what you want.

Tom Reinberger

Glendora

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Regarding Indian tribe campaign contributions to certain recall candidates: Indian tribes are considered sovereign nations, which enables them to conduct gambling enterprises within California. However, because it is illegal to accept campaign contributions from foreign countries, shouldn’t it also be illegal to accept campaign contributions from sovereign Indian tribes?

Ralph G. Fisher

Santa Barbara

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Re Peter King’s Sept. 28 commentary, in which he observes that Republicans are recycling the time-tested fear of jobs “fleeing California” to garner votes: None of the recall candidates has discussed where those jobs are really going and why. Big business is not sending jobs to Arizona and Nevada from California; it is in fact sending jobs from all three states to India, Asia and Eastern Europe. Not only manufacturing jobs are disappearing, but highly skilled professions such as accounting, engineering, architecture and high tech are being exported as well. These jobs are never coming back; no amount of deregulation, tax breaks or reductions in workers’ compensation will change that.

Any voter who thinks that changing the governor will bring job growth, other than more low-paying service jobs, should have his or her head examined.

Monique Bryher

Tarzana

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The dismissive King should have checked his facts before uttering his “Squawk. Squawk. Squawk.” The Census Bureau confirms that there has indeed been a “net out-migration of domestic population” from California: State Sen. Tom McClintock was right. He was also the only one in the Sept. 24 debate who proposed concrete, immediate steps that could be taken toward solving the state’s problems. Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante seemed to be too busy sneering to offer anything substantive.

Hal Pawluk

Covina

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I agree with the Sept. 26 letter writer who said that Arianna Huffington’s performance in the debate could be defined as “blame Dubya for everything.” That’s why I’m voting for her.

Jeff Friedman

Tustin

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What frightens me most about candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger is not the scary characters he promotes in his violent films, although this hypocrisy needs to be addressed by parents. Nor is it his lying about promising not to take special-interest money and promising to not run negative ads. No, what frightens me most is the voters who are practicing idol worship at a time they need to be studying the issues and taking our future seriously.

Paul Harris

San Diego

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Gov. Gray Davis and other Democrats claim that it is not appropriate to recall Davis because the law was intended to provide a way to remove officials who had broken the law, were incapable of serving or had committed some egregious misuse of the public trust. They argue that Davis was fairly elected and that he has a right to serve the remainder of his term.

These arguments are absurd. To the contrary, we the people should use our recall power more often to remove elected officials who are not representing the public to our satisfaction. In fact, we should put all elected officials on notice that this recall election is about them. We are not satisfied with the direction our state is heading. It is time for all of our elected officials to put aside partisan politics, stop making decisions based primarily on what is most expeditious for their reelection and stop giving special consideration to their campaign contributors and other special interests. We expect them to do what is best for all Californians.

It is time for California citizens to demand that pubic officials “shape up or get out of the way.”

Kerry Zemp

Bakersfield

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OK, the Republicans have had their fun. It’s time to vote no and get Sacramento back to work.

Phil Frey

Los Angeles