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MONKEY BUSINESS?
I got a kick out of the recent article about Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron [Outtakes, Oct. 12: "
"]. The article suggested that for a mere $1,500 campaign contribution, Vigil-Giron allowed monkeying around with voting machines that produced a win for George Bush in the last election. We know that no machine is perfect and perhaps with any system, undervoting is possible. I suggest that whatever undervoting takes place is cancelled out by all of the illegal votes cast since New Mexico doesn't require voters to produce valid ID. I think that Ms. Jacobson and Voter Action should concentrate on the illegal voting problem in New Mexico rather than pursue perfection in fallible machines. But, I know that action goes against the grain of the "politically correct" in that it's better to fan the flames of the divisive conspiracy fire rather than fix the illegal voting problem.
Michael Grimler
Española
CLEAR AS MUD
It is now incandescently clear that private voting machine corporations, together with elected officials, have undermined the public's right to vote. Privatized corporate profit goals mortally conflict with publicly funded elections, whose goal is the common good. Shielded by HAVA, corporations insist that the right to privatize and conceal the mechanics of voting trumps our public right to make certain our vote is counted fairly. This is not "free enterprise." It is subsidized entitlements enabling an elite few to manipulate technology, create a virtual electronic WMD and, with the flick of a button, invisibly insert themselves between the will of the people and our vote.
That our leaders, red and blue alike, have nurtured this deceit and denied all evidence that shows our votes have vanished, is a theft of trust more severe than a treasurer who steals. Like Germans, we cannot believe our leaders would allow the conflict between privatization and the public trust to become lethal. Thus, our officials, like cult followers, blindly march into the abuse, insisting our concerns overblown, childish and unjustified. And when election "Katrina" comes and the dikes fail and our leadership shops for shoes, how empty we may cry, "But we trusted them!"
Richard Welker
Santa Fe
WRONG ROAD
Given the economic conditions, many local businesses will not be able to sustain themselves with an increase of the local minimum wage to almost twice the minimum wage nationally [Cover story, Oct. 19: "
"]; $8.50 an hour is one thing, and reasonable, but $10.50 an hour (in Santa Fe) is quite another.
Though philosophically we can all agree with living wages, these cannot be achieved solely by shifting the societal burden of poverty to the few local employers who have been successful enough to take on 25 employees or more. Case in point: To think that a place like Cloud Cliff which takes on unskilled labor and trains people for several years to become pastry, bakery or restaurant cooks or chefs, could possibly afford to pay any worker coming off the street a minimum of $10.50 an hour is an illusion.
Unless Santa Fe customers are generally willing to pay about $15 to $20 each meal in the near future, which is doubtful, there are very few and awful choices that the City of Santa Fe leaves its true economic basis-the locally owned businesses: Either go out of business, move or draconically cut into the labor force; or, fight this patently unfair law in court, and challenge the legality of local authorities imposing arbitrary laws on its citizenry.
What is needed for economic well-being of a whole community are comprehensive goals and measures that take into account all kinds of variables. It requires long-term planning and a comprehensive strategy to combat poverty. Thinking that virtually doubling the minimum wage affecting only a few, mainly local businesses is the answer to the complex problem of poverty and stagnating wages nationally is a frivolous, short-sighted and reckless road for Santa Fe to take.
Willem Malten
Santa Fe
OWED WAGES
Who will pay the price for delaying implementation of the living wage? The people who can least afford it. Forty percent of them are single moms. Our community owes their children more than that.
Becky Lo Dolce
Santa Fe
ECONOMIC ETHICS
According to the New Mexico Department of Labor, Santa Fe added 1,400 jobs in the past year. Santa Fe added more jobs since enacting the Living Wage Ordinance than in any year since 1995. Why hasn't raising the cost of low-wage labor stifled the economy, as higher gasoline prices would? The reason is that supply/demand formulas just don't apply so straightforwardly to labor economics. When workers earn more money, they spend more money, stimulating the economy. There are two good reasons that the City Council should vote down the current proposal to delay implementing the $9.50/hour living wage: the Living Wage Ordinance is good for our economy and it's the ethical thing to do.
Andrew Lewinter
Santa Fe
SUBSIDY?
When employees earn so little that they have to supplement their income with money from Temporary Aid to Needy Families just to feed and clothe their children, the taxpaying public is effectively subsidizing employers who pay substandard wages. Business owners should pay a living wage to their employees without relying on the taxpaying public to make up the difference between poverty wages and living wages.
Connie McGhee, Katrin Smithback
Santa Fe
KEEP 'EM WARM
Thank you for your
about the challenges facing low-wage employees in Santa Fe. Santa Fe is a national leader in the Living Wage Movement, and has inspired over 100 other municipalities to enact living wage ordinances, even as the US Congress keeps the federal minimum wage at $5.15/hour. Our City Council has never made me more proud than when they enacted the Living Wage Ordinance, and would make me feel correspondingly ashamed if they delay its full implementation, as is currently being proposed. Combating poverty takes political courage, and this is no time for the City Council to get cold feet.
William M Stark, Joyce C Stark
Santa Fe
CORRECTION:
Last week's SFR
included the statement "It's unclear what action, if any, will be taken against La Quinta and CSF…" The sentence should have said "CBA" in reference to College Bookstores of America rather than "College of Santa Fe." A
follow-up story on the CBA situation
can be found in this week's Outtakes.
The Reporter welcomes original, signed letters to the editor. Letters (no more than 200 words) should refer to specific articles in the Reporter. They may be edited for clarity and space. Please include address and phone number for verification purposes; these will not be published.
