Taxing the Rich Under Prop. 63

Re “State’s Voters Agreeable to New Tax -- on Millionaires,” Oct. 12: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says Proposition 63 and two other health initiatives have “good motives” but that such measures should not be considered “until California’s fiscal health is fully restored.” In other words, addressing the mental health of tens of thousands of undeniably neglected mentally ill should await the state’s fiscal health, whatever the governor means by that.

Ira Spiro

Los Angeles

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Of course voters want the wealthy to be taxed! At this time, the wealthy are paying less state taxes than they did under Govs. Pete Wilson and Ronald Reagan. Anyway, since most citizens of our state are Christian, they believe in Christ’s saying, “To whom much is given, from him that much more shall be expected.”

Mary C. Thomas

Garden Grove

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Reading about Proposition 63, which taxes “wealthy” Californians at a ridiculously unfair rate to offset the cost of much-needed mental health programs, reminds me about the dangers of legislating by ballot box instead of through properly researched and carefully crafted legislation. We need to either get rid of the state Assembly and Senate, saving money on staff salaries and benefits that could be put to use for programs like those that Proposition 63 is promoting, or purge all of these emotionally charged, but frequently unwise, state propositions from the ballot once and for all. Legislation via special-interest propositions almost always lands in court, eating up more valuable resources than it ends up generating. Plus, funding mandated programs from poorly crafted propositions skews the state budget so much that funding all other worthy programs becomes impossible, resulting in the annual state budget deadlock.

Finally, I resent being asked to do the work that elected officials are supposed to be doing to begin with. Enough already! Vote no on all propositions.

Nancy J. Rigg

Los Angeles

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I am dismayed but not surprised that Schwarzenegger, who is against a “yes” vote on Proposition 63, has added the mentally ill to his “who cares?” list. Schwarzenegger is egomaniacal, politically ambitious and determined to sell the soul of California to special interests while ignoring our residents with special needs. Anyone who votes for him for anything ever again is crazy -- and he will not help you get better!

Sheila Fenton

West Hollywood

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Your article cites two quotes that pretty much sum up the way I feel about this millionaire tax thing: “There is something unseemly about taxing a very small part of society for programs that benefit the public at large” -- Jonathan Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. And, “Our problem in this state is that our wants exceed our willingness to pay.... And this doesn’t help” -- Stephen Levy of the Center for Continuing Study of the Economy.

When I was very young, I was taught that America is the land of plenty. Now that I’ve matured a bit, I realize this is not the case. America, and especially California, is the land of excess. Excess in everything, I’d say. In a state with so many manic-depressive, obsessive-compulsive, attention-deficient, post-traumatic, paranoid-schizophrenic, narcissistic, borderline multiple personalities as permanent residents, the entire state budget should be spent on mental health services.

Arthur Saginian

Saugus