Letters to the Editor

To the Editor:

I think that with the state of the economy locally, the US, and around the world that it is a really bad time to raise rates in the harbor. Empty stalls do not bring in revenue if the big boats leave. Those who have to stay are our friends and neighbors. I think the economy is going into a deflationary depression. Just look at the interest rates at about 0 and the negative rates in Japan and Europe. Look at Puerto Rico, Chicago, Detroit and prices for oil, corn, gold, etc.

A couple examples I think show overpricing are small boats trailering their boats instead of using stalls and tent frame permits up the Stikine River that people decided to build float houses. Bottom line is a loss of use and revenue.

The government is an inefficient allocator of capital. I see government services in Wrangell costing too much. An option is to privatize some of these functions. Leaving more income in the hands of the private sector is the surest pathway toward economic revival which is what we need right now.

Steve Murphy

To the Editor:

I feel compelled to write a response to the letter to the editor dated 5/26/16 from the Schnells. They state they are against any legal marijuana activity whatsoever and plead for another vote on this issue handwringingly hoping people would ban the weed from the devil’s garden, from this island. Actually what they are asking for is a return to a decades old failed policy. That has caused millions of people to be criminalized for a plant, has made foreign criminals richer by the day selling just another product, has cost US taxpayers trillions of dollars, thrown away in the dust bin of failed policy. As far as protecting the children goes, that is a tired old lame ploy used by every two bit politician, before Hitler so far up to Obama. I for one am tired of this simple minded tug on emotions in order to get their way, might as well lay on your back on the floor and have a kaniption fit. After all you can get pot anywhere, and teenagers know where it is. I have traveled extensively within the US and let me say it’s everywhere and abundant. The only thing the war on drugs has done is drive up the price and profit. I have been downtown when the cruse ships are in, and people want to buy a bag, or go to a hookahs shop and smoke. Dismayed at our lack of facilities they take their money and go elsewhere. Our only choice is to bury our heads in the sand and hope something will come along and rescue us, or embrace legal change and some tax revenues that you and I did not have to pay. After all our neighboring communities are embracing the will of the people to establish this business, only those that don’t will be out of their piece of the pie. Speaking of sweets, that is the only thing we are in danger of, running out of snacks when pot comes to town. After all there has been no instance of a drive by shooting about pot.

Kip Valvoda