Some budget cuts make no sense

Re “Gov. to seek major cuts in services,” Dec. 22

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to save money by releasing tens of thousands of inmates early. We can save much more. Let’s just sell all those confiscated weapons we store in evidence lockers to the convicts. They’ll need them to “make a living doing some killings.” What is the human and financial cost to apprehend them again and repeat the penal process?

Morton Wright

Marina del Rey

--

Re “Pinching pennies logically,” Opinion, Dec. 21

Bob Stone and Rick Cole made a good argument against simplistic across-the-board cuts, but they didn’t go far enough in uncovering the idiocy of that strategy. When the governor calls for a 10% decrease in spending, he means general fund spending. However, state agency managers almost always demand that each agency division cut its budget by 10% even though many are fully self-funded through fees, therefore not depleting the general fund. This unfairly cuts services to people who, through fees, are paying for those services.

The illogical implementation of these cuts extends to all budgeted activities, including travel, even when that travel is fully funded by federal agencies. Thus, state employees lose valuable training opportunities because a trip is cut even when the only thing the state would pay is an employee’s salary. Indeed, in the end, the state is getting less for its dollar by denying these training opportunities to employees. If only we could legislate a little common sense.

Barbara L. Hamrick

Pomona