Republicans, for the most part, always complain that it is "unfair" to raise taxes on big companies and the rich to solve our collective problems. For me, though, I think it is wrong to place the burden of such problems on our government workers.

Officials refer to it as furloughs, but they may as well call it an unfair — and possibly illegal — workers' tax. Will the lost pay be listed as a tax contribution on their W-2 forms? I think it should, if this action is not corrected.


On public's side

We sometimes hear that county, city, or state employees don't do their jobs, or that they are always out doing "whatever." Let me tell you, I've had a very hard year, and along the way, some of my personal documents went astray.

The employees at the county courthouse did a three-day job so that I could sleep at night. They were wonderful. They did what had to be done and took a lot of time searching. They even helped me at the assessor's office. One employee there in particular did the best job possible. Taxpayers have the best at the County Clerk's Office.


Pay to drop out

Let's tax the parents of kids who don't graduate from high school. That could significantly lower our dropout rates. After all, dropouts are more likely to be unemployed and to lead less productive lives. If a kid drops out in ninth grade, the parent(s) would be taxed $1,000, in 10th grade, $750, and so on. This would encourage parent(s) to keep their kid(s) in school longer, and we would have a more educated population.

We could also do it the other way around: Increase the tax the closer the kid is to finishing school before dropping out. After all, more taxpayer money has gone into the child's education. The state should get some of that money back.

Either way, it should be a "graduated" tax. If the child gets a GED, the parent(s) could receive a small refund.


Nuclear spin

There has been a lot of recent press putting positive spin on construction and use of nuclear power, encouraging us all to overlook the known hazards associated with the mining, refining, use and disposal of uranium.

Corporations are pushing it as economic development through construction, and maintaining a monopoly on power production and management, rather than enabling more rooftop photovoltaics and other distributed generation.

If we must pursue nuclear power in addition to renewable sources, our legislators must push for development of thorium-based nuclear power, which is a viable alternative to uranium and could eliminate many of the environmental hazards at lower cost to build and operate. For more info, Google it!


Wages of overpopulation

Gregg Bemis is usually far right of my left wing, but he is right on in his Dec. 20 column, "The disconnect, or subtleties of Copenhagen." Overpopulation plus industrialization equals Earth's death. We have blinders on if we do not see how present and increasing demands for plastics, metals, water, food, electricity, etc., are rapidly depleting Earth's resources, while polluting our air and waterways with nonbiodegradable poisons to the point of no return.

Overpopulation in poor countries produces slave labor to provide the overpopulated richer countries' products and services. The latter then have declining middle classes losing out to the slave labor.

We must help the entire world to understand that bringing more and more offspring into an increasingly impoverished world spells misery, and, sooner than we may think, death of all life.

Punishing the poor

I'm appalled that Terri Cole thinks taxing food is a good solution to our state's budget problems. We need to repeal the personal and corporate tax cuts.

I agree with Bill Jordan and Fred Nathan: The food tax will only further hurt lower income families and children. A family of four earning $1,767 monthly and receiving food stamps of $668 monthly will need to either come up with $53.86 monthly to pay the food tax; or the government may include the cost of the tax in the $668, which decreases their food stamps' value to $646.32 a month.

This adds another financial burden to families who are already struggling to make ends meet in a city like Santa Fe that has a high cost of living. As for food banks, a food tax will only add to the long lines of families needing food.