A woman browses the site of US home sharing giant Airbnb on a tablet on April 28, 2016. . AFP file photo by John MacDougall
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SB 584 could price
folks out of vacations
If you like to vacation in your home state of California and stay in short-term rentals (VRBO, Airbnb), be prepared to pay more.
If passed, Senate Bill 584 will increase the taxes you will pay to stay in a rental property by 15%. This is on top of existing local taxes. For example, if you want to vacation in a short-term rental at the beach in Santa Cruz, your total tax will be 29%.
While raising funds to pay for affordable housing is noble, taxing people who just want to go on vacation is not the way to do it. Families forced to pay 29% tax may not find the extra funds available and either vacation less or not at all. This will also impact the tourism industry with fewer visitors.
Write your legislators today and urge them to vote against SB 584.
Beth Weber-Guarino
San Jose
‘Get comfortable with
discomfort’ to open up
Re: “Gen Z teens don’t always get best mental health lessons” (Page A7, May 30).
There is hope for America when a 17-year-old high school student, Zach Gottlieb, can come up with a simple, elegant solution to one of our most persistent problems: our inability to communicate.
Ready? “Become comfortable with discomfort.”
Currently, the left is demanding trigger warnings so they can retreat to their safe spaces to avoid any uncomfortable thoughts. The right is banning books and rewriting history so that no White kid will ever feel guilty to find that racism really is deeply embedded in our country. And, of course, there is always that high-pitched whine from the Mar-a-Lago snowflake.
Toughen up, people. My friends and I are from a different generation. We were invited by Uncle Sam to attend 12-week seminars in physical and verbal abuse called boot camp. We’re not afraid to confront an uncomfortable thought. Bring back free speech.
Ray Jones
San Jose
Cutting emissions isn’t
enough in climate fight
Reader Adriel Ceja is right on (“We must prepare for effects of climate change,” Page A6, June 1).
Cutting greenhouse gases is only part of the solution. The science says warming will continue even if we stop all carbon emissions. Any emission gains our state makes can easily be erased by a wildfire or uncooperative U.S. states. Our state’s efforts set a good example and I support them, but we cannot guarantee they will be effective or catch on in time.
Why not prioritize some of our resources into local solutions that are guaranteed to help, like water management to combat drought, levees to combat sea level rise, forest management to combat wildfires, not building new homes in threatened areas, education, etc.? This is the hard work. It requires planning, cooperation and immediate sacrifice. In a sense, focusing only on eliminating carbon emissions is a copout; it ignores reality.
Don Jedlovec
Fremont
Calling Feinstein ‘unfit’
is unkind language
Re: “Poll: Two-thirds say ailing Feinstein is unfit to serve” (Page A1, May 26).
I thought your word usage in regard to Sen. Dianne Feinstein on May 26 was inappropriate, if not offensive, with the headline suggesting she might be “unfit” for office.
The terms “unable” or “too fragile” would have been both kinder and more appropriate. “Unfit” has negative, if not immoral connotations.
If the term were used in the poll, I question the survey’s neutrality.
Dave Wolf
San Jose
Debt ceiling deal good
sign for pragmatism
Re: “Senate OKs debt ceiling package” (Page A1, June 2).
So, it is true — politics does make for strange bedfellows.
Hard to believe when Nancy Pelosi woke up the other day that lo and behold there was Kevin McCarthy. Perhaps it is the beginning of a budding and promising future for steps toward the middle ground. Pragmatism may be on the rise as the far right and far left may be losing ground to the more stable and reasonable middle.
Compromise, which seemed to have been in its death throes, may be arising from the ashes from where it has lain for much too long. We can only hope.
Manny Morales
San Jose
Stop the slaughter;
ban horse racing
Another horse died on a racetrack this week at Belmont, just days after 12 were euthanized at the Churchill Downs slaughterhouse.
How many purposefully misbred animals must suffer before horse racing is outlawed? It’s not like this is some sort of accident or freakish happening. Horses are bred to have huge lungs driven by powerful hearts and hindquarters on spindly little lightweight legs that break.
Anyone betting on these beautiful horses is contributing to their killing.
Robert Wahler
San Jose