Letters to the editor: Shell companies, rent, Yemen and sprawl
Shell companies
Every year, an estimated $1 trillion is siphoned out of developing countries, in part through the corrupt use of anonymous shell companies, which are secretive entities that hide the identities of the real owners. Because their true identity is unknown, money laundering, drug and sex trafficking and even terrorist financing are enabled. Sadly, each dollar lost to corruption is a dollar that could be used to invest in health, agriculture and education in developing countries.
The leaked “Panama Papers” detailed the criminal activities of anonymous shell companies, but the most outrageous thing is they are perfectly legal. In less than an hour, you can set up a secret company that can then be used to open a bank account and start financing crime and terror – all while hiding your identity from law enforcement and financial institutions.
The good news is that U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, can help stop enabling the corruption that is robbing poor countries. Right now, the Senate is considering S. 2563, the ILLICIT CASH Act. By supporting this bill, Sen. Crapo would help pull back the veil of secrecy and give U.S. law enforcement access to ownership information they need to thwart and investigate criminal activity.
Ali Escalante, Boise
Yemen
Dear Sens. Risch and Crapo, and Reps. Simpson and Fulcher.
Greetings from Idaho, the state you were elected to represent in the U.S. Congress.
I would like to send you this reminder from Idaho that we do not have any enemies in Yemen. I have never even encountered any person from Yemen. Civilians, many of them women and children, are being killed in Yemen by Saudi-led coalition airstrikes. Civilians are illegal targets according to the laws of war.
The U.S. Congress has never declared war against Yemen. Yet February 2020 news reported that the U.S. held joint military exercises in Saudi Arabia as the war in Yemen escalated.
More than 100,000 people have died, and far more have been displaced, since Saudi Arabia began its war on Yemen in 2015 with the support of the Obama administration.
To me the good people of Yemen are the same as good people of Saudi Arabia. Why support the war between them? Why couldn’t Sen. Risch, as Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, instead actively apply diplomacy to stop this genocidal war?
Our congressmen owe the public an explanation for their support for this bloody war and suffering in Yemen.
Peace is our birthright.
Inna Patrick, Boise
Rent
Millions of American families are in crisis - they cannot afford the cost of rent. Since 1960, renters’ median earnings have gone up 5 percent while rents have risen by 61 percent. However, because of inadequate funding, only 1 in 4 eligible households can get rental housing assistance.
Sadly, President Trump’s 2021 budget proposal would make things far worse by cutting housing assistance for 166,000 families. Instead of cuts, we need to invest more to help families find a home. A “renter’s tax credit” would help by providing households a refundable tax credit for rental costs above 30 percent of their household income up to the local fair market rent.
Stable housing makes our lives and our communities better. It improves job performance and keeps our children happy, healthy, and safe. I call on our members of Congress to take big step in solving America’s housing crisis by supporting a renters’ credit for low- and moderate-income families.
Georgette Siqueiros, Boise
Sprawl
Sprawl development means more cars on the roads, which means more greenhouse gas emissions and greater maintenance costs, paid for by the citizens.
I know all about how sprawl practically dictates the use of personal automobiles, having lived in sprawl-happy towns and cities in Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma, Vermont, Pennsylvania and New York state.
And sprawl (a good example of this development pattern in our city is the Morning View subdivision). Few, if any, people who choose to live in this subdivision will do any walking, save from their front door to the nearest mailbox cluster. Not to blow my whistle, but it is a reality that I am likely the only resident of the Silverstone subdivision who chooses to walk throughout our city. And that is in the face of the fact that my home – and all the others in my area of town – have walking scores of zero (see walkscore.com).
Sprawl also makes open, natural areas further afield, and as the sprawl machine churns along (just look at what has happened to the former open land between the cities of Meridian and Boise), our connection to our natural heritage grows weaker and weaker.
Alan C. Gregory, Mountain Home