As a person who fought for civil rights - marched, wrote letters,distributed leaflets, made speeches - who heard the Rev. MartinLuther King Jr. speak a number of times and met him before his namebecame a household word, and campaigned for Harold Washington formayor, why am I turned off?
Why? The whining of a black politician calling it racistbecause he was not elected; the excuse by a famous basketball playerwho was justly criticized, calling it racist; the complaint by abunch of teenagers who were not admitted to a restaurant after it wasclosed, the same thing; and the last and most blatant incident, Rep.Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) rising up in righteous anger saying the policesergeants test was rigged. However, when he was asked in what way,he could not answer.
It was a fair and independent test, and the only reason theywere not selected for promotion was because they did not study hardenough. And this time they did not get extra credit because they areso-called minorities.
I ride buses in many parts of the city, and about 90 percent ofthe motormen and women are black. If they are the most qualified,that is all right with me. But that should apply in all cases. Ibelieved in affirmative action in the '60s and '70s, but that time isover. This is a capitalist country, and let the most qualified getthe contracts, the jobs and promotions.
It worries me and I'm sure other people of like minds about whatis happening - the threats, as witnessed in the demands for theDemocratic Convention, the fear of employers of being sued if they donot hire enough minorities or fire an incompetent employee, the fearto speak our mind, and the recent remarks by Lu Palmer: "We're nottalking about city law, we're talking about black law."
Wait a minute, Lu. Then maybe some of the other minorities -the Asian community, the Native American community (if there is sucha thing) - might want to make their own laws. And that might lead toall the ethnic communities wanting to do the same. Kathryn Anderson, Lake View Scum Is Rising
The editors of the Sun-Times really reached their true levelwhen they lauded traitorous Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.) ("No Dr.Jekyll in Henry Hyde," editorial, July 27). That level is the bottomof the barrel where the scum usually lies. No wonder there is somuch crime in your city if one of the major news rags condonesdishonesty and is dishonest itself. John Isaac, Hammond, Ind. Geography Lesson
We pay our elected state officials a lot of money to makeintelligent decisions about how to spend our money. They have takenit upon themselves to find sources of money to spend. Now that makesme wonder why these officials have come to the conclusion that theonly place where Illinois people can gamble is on a boat.
Don't they know that Las Vegas, Atlantic City and Reno havefound out that people can gamble on dry land? Hey, fellows - boatscan get iced in during the winter and they are hard to get to duringfloods.
Look at a map of Illinois. If you look carefully you will findthat Chicago is part of the state. Why, then, is it that they wantto allow gambling in all parts of the state and not in Chicago? Weare part of the state. Honest. And we pay taxes also. Marius Gallagher, Garfield Ridge Multiplier Blues
The problems with real property assessment in Cook and thecollar counties are magnified when we compare Cook and neighboringIndiana. It is not so much the property taxes but the total packageof state and local levies, including the much heavier burden of Illinois workers compensation and unemployment insurance.
The Cook County property tax system is further contorted by themultiplier - the commercial assessment rate is supposed to be 38percent. If the multiplier is 2, the total assessment rate is above75 percent of market value.
If the state needs the multiplier to measure tax effort fordistributing state aid, let it so do. But keep it out of theproperty tax system. Cook County is too big, its properties toodiverse, the range of economic activity so wide, pocketed bylocation. The out-of-date sales ratio studies, which are imbedded inthe calculation of the multiplier, violate the basic principles ofreal estate law.
The valuation of residential property at 16 percent of estimat ed market value is really 9 percent to 11 percent, as long as theright lawyers are used. Commercial valuations for new constructionare similarly skewed.
The county's programs of tax abatement (by lowering theassessment rate) for certain types of commercial property are a goodattempt to make it competitive. But what we have is a tax(assessment) pipeline with bends here and there - what any goodmechanic would describe as temporary fixes.
Even the bill of Sen. Aldo A. DeAngelis (R-Olympia Fields)protecting a limited class of elderly homeowners is anotherunnecessary bend. Discontent among Illinois taxpayers comes from aninability to judge their future tax bill because the course of their assessed valuation is not predictable.
The only solution is to eliminate the multiplier and freeze theassessed valuation, at least on residential property, until theproperty is sold or improvements are constructed. At that time thenew valuation, representing 33.3 percent of the sales price, would beplaced on the property. The new owners, recognizing that theirproperty had a higher valuation than a neighboring unsold property,would accept it for two reasons. First, the additional propertytaxes to be paid would be factored into the selling price. Second,their valuation in turn would be kept constant. Paul D. Speer Jr., president, Municipal Finance Consulting Services Inc., Northfield
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