Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/6319
6A – Daily News – Wednesday, January 27, 2010 A MediaNews Group newspaper Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer's home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. 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How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 Opinion I have mixed feelings about it, if you want to know the truth. I speak of tax-code simpli- fication, another item on Pres- ident Obama's to-do list. Last April, he established a committee that includes some sharp people from both sides of the political aisle. The committee, headed by former Federal Reserve Chair- man Paul Volcker, will soon release recommendations on how to simplify the tax code. The tax issue has always been near and dear to me. I'm an independent writer, you see. Every year about now, I begin waking in cold sweats because of the massive cleri- cal work I must do to file my taxes. I keep hundreds of receipts in a large box in the closet of my home office. I must orga- nize every one into its appro- priate folder, tally and record the total and organize every transaction I made into a detailed document that I send to my CPA. He has it even worse than I do, thanks to Republicans. Long ago, Republicans were about simplicity where taxes were concerned. Presi- dent Reagan took the mess that the tax code had been and led a simplification effort that made tax preparation so sim- ple an English major could do it. But since then, our politi- cians -- mostly Republicans when they were in charge of the White House and Con- gress -- added all kinds of nuances, albeit some in the form of tax cuts, to produce a monstrosity of a tax code. Today, the U.S. tax code exceeds 67,000 pages -- a doc- ument so confusing, a busload of Harvard CPAs can't agree on what is in it. During the presidential campaign, Obama offered some ideas to dramatically simplify tax preparation for about 40 percent of Ameri- cans. He said he'd have the IRS use taxpayers' employer-pro- vided financial information to "pre-populate" their tax-return forms for them. Translation: The IRS would do your taxes for you. Not to worry, though. If a clerical error said you owed a couple million dollars, I'm sure you'd have to spend only a few weeks in jail before you straightened things out. In any event, Obama's tax-simpli- fication ideas sound- ed pretty good during the campaign and a year ago, but they've lost their luster since then -- since he and Congress spent the past year trying to rework our health care system. For starters, it doesn't sound like Obama's ideas would help out the self- employed much any- way. I don't work for a company -- I don't file a W-2. I have a variety of sources of income. I'd still have to itemize. I'd still have to do battle with the box of receipts I keep in my closet. My CPA would likely be just as bad off -- if not worse. If the way Obama and Con- gress went about health care reform is any indication -- with apologies to Winston Churchill, the Senate's bill was a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enema -- they'd likely make the tax code more complicated at the same time they jacked up our taxes. In any event, now that their first stab at heath care reform is dead -- now that Republican Scott Brown has won Ted Kennedy's old seat -- the odds are, reports The Hill, that Obama and Congress are too fatigued to try to reform the tax code. On one hand, that's a bummer. I'm desperate for tax simplification. But considering that things could be made even worse, I don't mind root- ing around in a box of receipts as much as I used to. As I said, I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. Tom Purcell, a humor columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Car toons newspaper syndicate. Visit Tom on the web at www.TomPurcell.com or e-mail him at Purcell@caglecartoons.com. Simplifying the tax code? Commentary N EWS D AILY RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Tom Purcell STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R), State Capitol Bldg., Room 4164 P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento 94249; (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319- 2102 STATE SENATOR — Sam Aanestad (R), State Capitol Bldg., Room 2054, Sacramen- to, CA 95814. (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: gover- nor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2635 Forest Ave. Ste. 100, Chico, CA 95928; 893-8363. U.S. SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (415) 403-0100. Fax (202) 224- 0454. Your officials Energy matters Editor: Regarding a presentation by PG&E at the Dec. 22 Board of Supervisors. Sitting through this presenta- tion was like sitting through an infomercial. This presentation was sponsored by part of the $2 billon government stimulus money for the purpose of clean energy opportunities for areas such as ours. When asked the question if this had anything to do with the high towers, SmartGrids, SmartMeters and Smart Ther- mostats, the answer was, yes. I also asked about the Smart- Meters that PG&E was installing throughout Bakers- field, Fresno, Kern County and the surrounding area, and why a class-action lawsuit was filed against them. According to the lawsuit, the SmartMeter devices are suppose to be designed to track electric- ity and gas usage with precision and transmit their data to the utility via wireless satellite. However these meters aren't accurate and lead to people being over charged. PG&E should be forced to refund the over charges. They admitted PG&E doesn't know what went wrong. These SmartMeters are mon- itored via satellite and the Smart Thermostats can be manipulat- ed by the utility company when there is high demand or if they feel the home or office is using too much electricity and Gas. They did acknowledge this at the meeting, also. After the meeting I continued asking questions. When talking to the representative of PG&E, I said "let me get this straight, years ago the government put out a warning that the ther- mometers that we use in our homes contain mercury and mercury is known to be a haz- ardous material and studies showed it caused serious health issues. We were to take our ther- mometers to the closest hospital so they could destroy them. We were no longer to have them in our homes. You can't buy one to this day. Now PG&E wants us to take our light bulbs out and switch them with florescent bulbs because they use less energy. They contain mercury. More mercury then our ther- mometers had and we have at least 10 lights per household instead of one or two ther- mometers per household, what's your answer to that?" I also asked him about the hazardous material going into our landfills? I then said, "You want to get rid of the light bulbs to save energy, however you are out promoting electric cars right? So how much electricity does it take to charge a car battery? Now they are putting lithium in the batteries so they will have a longer life and they will have a bigger storage capacity. Do you know how much electricity it takes to charge a lithium bat- tery? At least two and a half times longer then a regular bat- tery. We get rid of the light bulbs, as they use too much electricity, exchange them for mercury bulbs, now we are to get electric cars that can take up as much as 24 hours to charge, can you explain the theory on this?" Kathy Nelson, Red Bluff School zone speed limit Editor: Seems to me that we ought to let everybody man- age what they have control over. The schools teach our children, Caltrans manages our highways and the judicial — along with law enforcement — enforce the laws. Use the flashing lights to reduce the speed to 25 mph only when needed — either dropping off or when picking up the children. All other times it is 45 mph. Other than the parking lot, the school already has a very large fence that pro- tects the children from having access to the road and the park- ing lot. Parents drop off and pick up their children at the back end of the parking lot, far away from the road. I have even seen the bus stop just south of the old Blue Shield building, so that no children walk on Antelope. I drive this area at least two or three times a day and have done it for the last 10 years and I can count on one hand how many children I have seen walking down Antelope during school hours. Has anyone noticed that there are no school crossings on Antelope and that there are no houses within the school area. Control the area just like we do for special events at the fair grounds. Slow traffic down to 25 mph when crowds are present. It works very well. I am not aware of any child that has been hurt in front of the school. The school seems to be happy with the flashing lights, so let Caltrans control the problem times with the flash- ing lights. I would be very dis- appointed if I was traveling through this area at 6:15 p.m. and got a ticket because I did- n't slow down to 25 mph when you can hardly see the school or the signs at that time of night. A judge shouldn't have that much control over the sys- tem. Just use common sense. What is the policy when there is a special function at night? How do you know if the school is closed? What about summer school times? This policy seems to work well for other schools, so why not here. If parents are really concerned for the safety of their children, then enforce the no talking on your phone when driving law. Seems I see that happening more than the prob- lem with the speed limit. Ken Swanson, Red Bluff Your Turn