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Wednesday, March 21, 2001
Roddey deserves praise for moving forward amid the criticism
The recent Allegheny County property tax reassessment, unfortunately, brings into the limelight a tax that no one likes. This reassessment, however, was necessary, as it has been years since properties have been uniformly reassessed.
Yes, there were mistakes and those are unfortunate. I have seen, however, too much blame being placed at the foot of the Roddey administration for a problem that it did not cause, but rather inherited.
Sabre Systems and Service was hired before the current form of county government was in place. For the most part, Sabre did a decent job, albeit there are obviously some serious errors here and there. County Chief Executive Jim Roddey, to his credit, has worked to streamline the appeal process and to have Sabre come back and fix problems that involved multiple properties or whole areas.
He also stood behind the open-access county Web site, required of an honest system. Kudos to Roddey for recognizing the wisdom of not throwing out the baby with the bath water as so many would do. The reassessment was painful, but Roddey is using good judgment in his attempts to smooth out the rough edges.
BERNARD D. NEWMAN
Early education impact
In response to the Feb. 14 editorial "Child Careless": Because the Ridge administration rightly believes parents should have the freedom to choose who cares for their children, the state will subsidize care provided by relatives/neighbors who receive child abuse clearances, which will become mandatory June 1.
However, subsidized care also is available in registered, licensed, family-based and center settings. Parents not only must think of the most convenient care arrangement for their children, but they also should explore where the best learning experiences for their children can be found.
Research conducted on brain development in children shows that the care and education received in the earliest years have a long-term impact on emotional development and ability to learn. The brain grows at a remarkable rate between the ages of newborn and 6, and the presence of appropriate stimulation and positive experiences at critical developmental points can have sustained effects.
Longitudinal studies show that at-risk children who attend high-quality preschools have higher rates of education, employment, earnings and home ownership as adults. For every dollar invested in child development services, taxpayers save $7 in the cost of remedial education, welfare, unemployment and the criminal justice system.
Gov. Tom Ridge wants to do what is best for children who require care outside their homes. Effective policies and funding to provide strong professional development opportunities for registered, licensed early education providers would help to ensure that these educators are trained to provide essential developmentally appropriate learning opportunities to prepare children socially and intellectually for school.
KAREN ALTARES
Editor's note: Gateways Pittsburgh is a partnership of organizations working to create a professional development system for early childhood educators.
About office supplies
I'm writing in reference to the March 2 article "Office Suppliers Blast County Over Lack of Bidding."
The U.S. Communities Government Purchasing Alliance is a program developed by governments for all local governments. The National Association of Counties is one of the national sponsors of this program. All contracts, including the office supply contract, are publicly bid by a public entity on behalf of all local governments. Los Angeles County, Calif., along with Fairfax County, Va., bid this contract nationally. Vendors from Allegheny County were provided the opportunity to bid, as were vendors across America. There is no "loophole" in your administrative codes, as this contract was legitimately bid.
Second, Office Depot is just as much a local supplier as the firms that held the former contract for more than 40 years. Office Depot has five retail stores, over 200 store employees and 20 drivers and account managers in Allegheny County. Office Depot paid more than $1 million in state and local taxes. Additionally, Office Depot returned a portion of its sales to more than 10 Allegheny County schools in fall 2000.
Finally, this program has more than 8,000 public entities amassing buying volume. On average, local governments save more than 25 percent on their office supply purchases. Even large counties, such as Fairfax, Va.; Hennepin, Minn.; the city of Los Angeles; the city and county of Denver; Palm Beach County, Fla.; and Montgomery County, Md., report significant savings on the program. These savings are returned directly to the taxpayers. This allows better use of local resources for other local government needs.
Post-Gazette readers and reporters can gain even more information by reviewing the U.S. Communities program at www. uscommunities.org.
STEPHEN C. SWENDIMAN
A note of sympathy
Regarding the editorial "A Cardinal Displeased" (March 9), I would like to state that blasphemy ("heresy" was incorrectly used in the editorial) is profane or mocking speech, writing or action concerning God or anything regarded as sacred. Depicting Jesus Christ as a naked woman in the context of one of Christianity's most significant holy days more than qualifies.
Cardinal Edward Egan of New York not only has a "right to his opinion," he also had a duty to speak out. Referring to the artist as a "pathetic individual" is simply expressing sorrow or sympathy toward the person -- not exactly a scathing condemnation. Indeed, sorrow or sympathy denote compassion, which is a very Christian response.
And exercising my First Amendment rights, I pray for God to richly bless all of you on the PG staff.
PAT McCULLUM
Back the right party
I read with great interest Jim McKay's Feb. 27 article "Outgoing USW President Becker Thinks Bush Will Help Steel Workers." If this is the direction the United Steelworkers union is to pursue, I see a further loss of jobs for the membership.
Instead of embracing George W. Bush as president, Becker should be abandoning nonpartisan politics. Remember that eight years ago Becker and the Steelworkers union endorsed Clinton's bid for the presidency, although Clinton supported the North American Free Trade Agreement. Supposedly a compromise was made and Clinton, in exchange for USW support, was to implement a national health care plan. This plan never materialized and many steel workers lost their jobs because of a flood of imported steel.
Becker once described his predecessor, Lynn Williams, as his mentor, but Becker failed to learn a valuable lesson from him. Williams had the foresight to know that nonpartisan politics was not the right road for a union to travel, so he led the Steelworkers union in Canada into the New Democratic (Labor) Party. Not only has Canada passed legislation protecting steel workers' jobs, but it also has a national health care plan.
My only hope is that Becker's successor, Leo Gerard, is not as naive as Becker and realizes that what is good for the steel workers in Canada is good for the steel workers in the United States and goes on to have the Steelworkers union endorse the Labor Party in the United States.
ANTHONY SLOMKOSKI III
Editor's note: The writer is a past president of USW Local 1196.
Pay the debt first
I hope all voters, Republican and Democratic, take note of the politicians who vote for this so-called tax cut "for all." It will benefit the most wealthy people. I say pay the debt first, and after the debt is paid, then use the surplus for Social Security, prescriptions and education.
Think about this: You are a taxpayer and own a house with a mortgage and you hit the lottery. Would you pay off the mortgage first or would you keep paying the interest?
BOB KASCHAK
Helping with awareness
Congratulations for the first-rate article in the March 13 Magazine section about Mona Counts and the nurse practitioner-run clinic in Greene County ("Practical Solutions"). Over the past two years the Post-Gazette has covered with fairness and care Pennsylvania's legislative and state boards of Nursing and Medicine activities regarding access to practice issues for nurse practitioners.
With this article the PG has provided the service of informing patients and their primary-care providers, both physicians and nurse practitioners, about the appropriateness of a patient being able to choose a nurse practitioner as a primary-care provider and about the barriers to that choice, such as inadequate reimbursement options and nurse practitioners being barred from provider panels as primary- care providers.
This is a real problem, and I thank you for calling it to the public's attention.
MARYANNE LOEBIG
That's not just any officer with her beagle -- that's my daughter
A March 15 front-page article on foot-and-mouth disease and the role of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, including its beagle brigade, in fighting U.S. infection was very informative ("Travelers From Europe Checked"). But I bet the Post-Gazette did not know that the girl in The Associated Press photo taken at Dulles International Airport -- Officer Jennifer Jones of the Department of Agriculture -- was born and raised in Pittsburgh. But I did. I'm her dad!
Jennifer graduated from Upper St. Clair High School in 1988 and the University of Kentucky in 1994. She has been working for the USDA since graduating from college.
DAVID P. JONES
Fox Chapel
Coordinator
Gateways Pittsburgh
Downtown
Managing Director
National Association of Counties Financial Services Center
Washington, D.C.
Mount Washington
Natrona Heights
Pleasant Hills
Legislative Chairperson
Three Rivers National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners
Point Breeze
Upper St. Clair