LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — Close retirement loophole

As a member of the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System, a classroom teacher for 28 years and a retiree for 14 years, I wish to comment on Kay Williams’ letter regarding House Bill 1040.

This bill will close a loophole in the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System that some have been exploiting for several years. This loophole has allowed some highly paid public school administrators to “double-dip” by retiring for a few weeks to draw a retirement check and then going right back to work at the same or a similar job with the same pay as if they had never left employment.

This is all done with the full blessing of the district school board.

If this greed is allowed to continue and spread, it will have a deleterious effect on the long-term financial stability of the ATRS. What is so unfair about teaching until you wish to retire and then actually retiring? Unfortunately, some people in public education think there should be no limit to feeding at the taxpayers’ trough.

ATRS has been a very fair retirement for me and a majority of other public school retirees. Let’s keep it as it was intended and stop the abuse. I urge taxpayers to call their state representatives and senators and urge passage of this much-needed legislation.

LARRY FISHER Beebe

Tax revenue wasted

I witnessed firsthand legislators’ wastefulness during a dispute with the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department.

When Arkansas 5 near Cabot was widened, I lost my business, but my landlord was overcompensated. I appealed to the legislative committee and appeared before a committee largely consisting of legislators who were simply there to tap expense accounts. Eighteen legislators, noncommittee members, attended.

The committee appeared to have been lobbied at taxpayers’ expense. Then-Sen. Shane Broadway told me legislators often attend other meetings when they are at the Capitol; however, the committee I appeared before was the only one meeting that day. After six years, many of these 18 legislators still show up, with huge expenses.

I wrote a Freedom of Information letter inquiring about the cost and purpose of these 18 legislators’ visits. I got a breakdown of about $1,000, but they could not give a reason why these legislators were at the Capitol on taxpayer dollars.

We have the right to know how our tax money is spent. Seeing several meetings about legislative audits made it clear that the process is a farce. If someone thinks our legislators work hard, they need only sit through a few meetings where many lawmakers wander in and out and accomplish very little. It’s absurd to say they deserve expense allowances on top of their salaries that can be abused.

JERLENE McCOIG Mabelvale

Promise squandered

Sadly, former Gov. Mike Huckabee shows his lack of understanding of his Bible in his comments about the proposed Jewish settlements.

He claims that the location of the proposed Jewish settlements is the place that God gave them, but he fails to add that it was the place that God took away from his people when he ultimately destroyed the nation Judah in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, because they failed to obey him.

People need to get their facts straight before they inject God into the question of Jewish settlements in modern-day Palestine. God’s people now are a spiritual people and his kingdom is spiritual, not earthly. He gave physical Israel all it was ever promised, but they squandered it, and God took it away from them long ago. They have no future promise now, something the former governor fails to acknowledge.

HAROLD SHARP Little Rock

A voice for voiceless

A letter writer focused on the cruelty of state Sen. Cecile Bledsoe as related to Senate Bill 113, a bill that actually upholds the Arkansas Constitution by preventing the tax-paying citizens of Arkansas from paying to have innocent unborn children killed.

The tragedy of rape and incest can never be removed by the tragedy of another violent act, that of abortion. How cruel is abortion? During a dialation-and-evacuation abortion, unborn children, children created in the image of God, are literally torn to pieces, pulled apart a limb at a time. I ask you again, how cruel is that?

I stand behind Bledsoe and all others working so hard to ensure that my tax dollars will not go to fund the killing of innocent unborn children through abortion. As a child of God, I will be a voice for the voiceless unborn, a voice that is crying out about the true cruelty of abortion.

LEAH HUGHES Little Rock

SS needs big changes

Social Security is financially solvent for many years because its trust fund will cover annual deficits as SS payments exceed SS tax income? Baloney.

In the past, SS has collected more revenue than it has paid for retirement and other benefits. True, the excess income has been invested in the trust fund. But by law the only investment Social Security is allowed is in U.S. Treasury securities. Social Security must cash these in when it needs additional funds to pay benefits. The Treasury then pays Social Security money as required.

Where is this money? Not in the Treasury. Funds previously invested by SS have been used for other programs or, very rarely, to pay down the national debt. But it does not matter. Funds used by Treasury to pay Social Security must come from tax increases, reduction of other government programs or increased borrowing; that is, printing money. If there were no trust fund, the money would come from the very same sources. Thus, there is no lock box.

Social Security was established as pay as you go, possible during earlier years due to more income than pay out. The number of workers per retiree was 42 in 1940, but now is only about three. There must be major revisions to Social Security.

BOB ELLIS Fayetteville

Take off amendment

Shame on state Rep. Jeff Wardlaw. A woman who is raped or impregnated by incest is only going to feel worse after an abortion. She will have a lifetime of regret when she realizes she gave her innocent unborn the death sentence for the crime of his or her father.

The people of Arkansas made it clear in 1988 when they passed Amendment 68 to the state Constitution that taxpayer dollars will not be used to pay for an abortion except in the cases of threat to the life of the mother, so why would the people of Arkansas want to pay for abortion with their insurance money?

Senate Bill 113 passed the Senate with an overwhelming majority of 27 for and eight against. I suspect it will pass the House committee, too. Wardlaw should take his awful killer amendment off SB 113 and let our legislators vote on it.

MARSHA BOSS Little Rock

Sing, but enunciate

A big hand for the good National Anthem singers.

I still remember Glen Campbell’s rendition of our National Anthem at the Los Angeles Dodgers World Series many years ago. The hair stood up on my neck when he hit that high note on pitch.

In defense of Christina Aguilera’s version at the Super Bowl, even though her ramparts were shown brightly by the glare of the rockets, I was able to understand every word she sang. All I gleaned from the songs at the half-time show were “whomp” or “whup.”

Come on, guys and gals, keep singing, but enunciate them thar words.

VIRGIL O. TURMAN North Little Rock

Pledge is being kept

Re the letter from Polly Munkberg of Little Rock, “Have some sympathy”: State Sen. Cecile Bledsoe a cruel person?

Bledsoe knows that the circumstances of our conception have no bearing on the people we become, and many people conceived by rape and incest are happy to be alive and productive children of God.

She also knows about the innocence of the unborn child who is given a death sentence for the crime of his or her father. Poor women who are on Medicaid in Arkansas who need abortions to save their life or who are pregnant as a result of rape or incest can get public-funded abortions because of the federal Hyde Amendment.

The killer amendment added to Senate Bill 113 by the House Public Health Committee is, in my opinion, unconstitutional. Lawmakers pledge to uphold the Constitution. Bledsoe is such a lawmaker.

REBECCA HARTMAN Harrison

Strive for excellence

With the proposed replacement of the Broadway Bridge, it is incumbent on us as a community to encourage that this new structure not merely be functional but rather that we use this opportunity to design and construct a symbolic gesture of how are cities are linked while serving the transportation needs of the future. I envision a span that is celebratory, iconic, fun, aesthetically pleasing and serves the needs of motorists, public transportation, pedestrian and bicycle use, a bold solution worthy of inclusion in the Six Bridges District.

Direct access to the river trail and provisions for expanding the public transportation system area must. As both cities embrace the concepts of sustainable living solutions, no better expression of this could be made than through the recognition and thoughtful inclusion of many viable transportation considerations.

If we fail to dream and demand excellence, we will only receive mediocre solutions. We can do better than replicating the Main Street Bridge and endeavor to make a lasting statement that we are a destination worthy of investment and a place we can be proud to call home. We must embrace design excellence and realize that design does matter and it enriches our lives and the vibrancy and vitality of our community. I challenge the design team, community leadership and stakeholders to make wise use of this opportunity and not settle on anything short of excellence.

MARK A. ROBERTSON Little Rock

Comparison advised

One of the definitions of cruelty is the deliberate infliction of pain and suffering. Now compare the efforts of state Sen. Cecile Bledsoe with the actions of an abortion provider.

If you have trouble visualizing, I encourage you to go to the priestsforlife.org website gallery to see true cruelty. Until America sees the holocaust of abortion, we will not rise up to end it.

DAVID BORDOVSKY Springdale

Feedback Air could be next As a federal retiree, I recently received a notification from the Office of Personnel Management that my federal income tax withholding had increased for 2011.

I tried two of the number listed on my form and found that they were perpetually busy, so I emailed them for an explanation.

I received an e-mail from OPM stating that under a law titled the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act-a distinct misnomer-passed in 2010, “tax bracket ranges and standard deduction levels have increased slightly due to low inflation,” triggering an increase in my withholding.

Due to low inflation? I’ve never heard of that before. “As a courtesy,” they automatically increased my withholding based on the new tax tables. I can’t thank them enough for their “courtesies.” I have inquired through Sens.

Mark Pryor and John Boozman as well as Congressman Tim Griffin’s office and this apparently has happened to all federal retirees. This current administration is determined to raise taxes any way it can to offset its reckless spending habits. My question now is what will be next.

If taxpayers don’t watch out, this government will tax the air you breathe.

LES BLEDSOE North Little Rock