Letters to the editor: Buying a house, infrastructure, education, stimulus money
House buying in Boise
My family moves every couple of years. Been living in the Boise area 17 years after serving 26 years in the Air Force. We love Idaho.
We were approved for a $400,000 home loan. The only properties we can find, however, are fixer-uppers and dumps. The real estate issues plaguing our community have little to do with economics and everything to do with unadulterated greed. Property managers remind me of the hogs we raised in my youth, all jostling, shoving and salivating to get more access to the trough. Their sober analysis of economics is mere rationalization covering unvarnished avarice.
Price-gouging during times of economic distress is illegal. Single parents and those on fixed incomes are having to vacate homes and businesses due to “suddenly rising” rents. There is no sense of unity or common decency, only unrestrained and opportunistic predation of those less fortunate. Our elected officials need to step up and curtail the greed.
If you think Boise is immune to homelessness and its ancillary problems, just wait a few years. I’m already keeping my eyes open, not for affordable housing, but for which freeway bridge will provide my family the best shelter.
Terry J. DeLaney, Boise
Infrastructure
Open letter to Idaho representatives and senators:
While you search for excuses to use when blocking the infrastructure bill proposed, I would advise you to consider your state’s needs rather than your party’s wish list. U.S. Highway 95 through Idaho (Oregon and Nevada, too) is woefully inadequate to handle the amount of traffic it gets, and the problem grows worse every day. Boise and Twin Falls have no access to passenger trains or bus lines that provide direct access to Salt Lake City or Portland. The majority of Idaho cities have issues relating to broadband access, and those issues range from relatively minor to no access at all. Seventy-five percent of the wastewater treatment plants in our state fail to meet minimum standards. Fishing and camping, farming and livestock make up a huge percentage of our industry and each of these depends on clean water in order to survive. These are each a part of the infrastructure in our state, and they are failing. We need to build infrastructure, and President Biden’s proposal includes a means to fund the project.
Teresa Murray, Emmett
Attack on education
Three recent op-eds dealt with a common problem — the attack on Idaho’s public education system. Lauren McCarter pointed out the advantages of teaching the humanities something the Legislature doesn’t seem to like (April 5). Four BSU alumni who are also veterans explained the need for education about diversity (April 4) something the Legislature seems to oppose. Beth Oppenheimer called attention to an Idaho extremist lobbying group that wants to cancel money that was to support Idaho’s families and early educators (April 4).
Conservatives don’t like education because educated people don’t fall for scams like QAnon and militias. The humanities provide students with a broad historical background and the tools to analyze. But conservatives like private schools (especially religious schools) because they indoctrinate students in Dark Age myths and produce malleable citizens.
On the wall of the Ministry of Truth in the novel “1984” is the slogan “Ignorance is strength,” which meant that if the people were kept ignorant, the party would be strong. That seems to be the Republican slogan in the Idaho Legislature; don’t educate students and keep the people ignorant.
Gary L. Bennett, Boise
Stimulus money
Why do minor children have to repay portions of “‘stimulus” money? I’ve received three checks from an already debt-ridden public treasury this past year. I returned one check, but it was sent back. My name is on each check, but money was sent to all in the household, including minor children. I’ve called the U.S. Treasury, Federal Reserve and congressional offices. Two congressional offices have confirmed that the minor children will have to repay portions of this added debt most if not all of their lives. So what is it called if a child, who can’t vote, must work most of their life paying off someone else’s debt? Hmmm. After three checks, it looks like a pattern. With no application process, they (and everyone) are forced to participate. Is the state of Idaho accepting this debt-ridden money also? If so, unless I am missing something, could that mean the governor and Legislature of the state of Idaho are complicit?
Scott Perrin, Cottonwood