Letters to the Editor: Leave the rainy-day fund alone. Tax services and oil extraction instead

To the editor: I am disturbed by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to tap the state’s rainy-day fund to help close the expected $37.9-billion budget deficit. We need this fund for natural disasters or recessions, not a standard downturn in revenue.

Although I am in favor of having our wealthiest residents pay high taxes, we need other reliable sources of income when those taxes from investments decline.

A tax on services is the best option for leveling out our tax receipts. I am quite willing to pay an additional tax when I get a haircut, consult an attorney or tax accountant, and even when I take my beloved dog to the vet.

I know that these taxes would not be popular, but they are progressive in that higher-income folks are more likely to use these services than people struggling paycheck to paycheck. The current alternatives of cutting human services and raiding the rainy-day fund are irresponsible.

Bruce Hirsch, Culver City

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To the editor: As a concerned physician, I did not hear specific mention of benefits the new budget has for older adults who are sliding into homelessness faster than any other age group. Also, increasing out-of-pocket costs for medical care and drugs are rapidly shrinking seniors’ pocketbooks.

A solution might be to impose a severance tax, as many other states have, on companies that extract natural resources such as oil or natural gas. A small number of states do not impose this tax, and California is one of them.

Many legislative attempts have been made over the decades but have been defeated at the behest of corporate lobbyists. Maybe it is time we try again.

Gene Dorio, Saugus