DATE: Thursday, May 22, 1997                TAG: 9705220010

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B12  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Letter 

                                            LENGTH:  108 lines

LETTERS TO EDITOR -- THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

FINANCE

Now greedy banks

have a new target

So much for the level playing field! Just when banks are suing credit unions to limit their membership, banks are simultaneously expanding their scope into the investment-banking industry (Business News, May 4). When will the federal government and consumers realize that bankers have only one mission: to use whatever means possible to monopolize on their already self-indulgent financial position regardless of the ramifications (even the Great Depression).

After they undermined the S&Ls in the '80s and bullied the credit unions in the '90s, they have targeted investment banking for the year 2000. Let's hope the American people can recognize injustice and greed when they see it.

Ronald L. Burniske

Virginia Beach, May 15, 1997

MODERN CULTURE

Forget the F-word

I think you must have been hard up for news items when you printed the article the ``F-word is common'' (Daily Break, May 14). The only thing I got from it is it's meant to degrade the subject spoken about. In my mind it also belittles the person using it and makes him/her less respectful.

Seems like our newspaper could have better news to influence our younger generation. I'm a senior citizen and really enjoy most of our modern ``culture,'' but this part I don't. Onward with better influence, please!

Pat Hoosack

Norfolk, May 14, 1997

ONANCOCK

Street project

is badly engineered

Regarding your May 2 report on Onancock: The citizens object to the street project in part because of its bad engineering.

The four-block strip is being straightened; it's now an almost imperceptible curve. Connections to the existing road at either end are then awkward curves.

Lilliston Lane is just that: a lane that goes to about four houses. As a dead end, why is it being widened? Standards being used for this project are for suburban, modern roads. They do not take into account the historic status of the town. A letter to the local press likened the project to putting a Formica countertop on an antique washstand.

The sewer and sidewalks need repair. The town worked for years to get funding. Why is the only option ``improvements''?

The letters to the governor are asking for a moratorium on the project to correct the engineering and save some more old landscaping.

Shirley Zamora

Onancock, May 7, 1997

EDUCATION

Beach Schools

spend less, tax less

Much has been written on the debate between the Virginia Beach City Council and the School Board concerning funding for our schools and whether it is appropriate for a state legislator to urge local elected officials to oppose an increase in real estate taxes. Should representatives ``butt out,'' since education policy and funding are local issues? Nothing could be further from the truth. More than 22 percent of the state budget, or nearly $4 billion dollars, is spent on local schools, and education policy is set by the State Board of Education.

I was delighted to be credited, along with several General Assembly colleagues, as the first state legislators in 21 years to ask City Council to re-examine priorities and not raise taxes. Real property taxes in the city of Virginia Beach have gone up 52.5 percent in the past 10 years, from 80 cents per $1,000 of real estate valuation to $1.22 per $1,000 in 1996. Virginia Beach citizens just received another hike last month when real property assessments increased an average of 3 percent.

In a representative democracy, citizens elect men and women who will both reflect their views and make hard financial and policy choices. On both counts, my opposition to the continued escalation in real estate taxes was proper.

But priorities were set and the best choices made to spend the $200 million without raising taxes. As any taxpayer knows, you can't spend what you don't have. Government should look first to streamlining its own operations, and not determine that a budget impasse between the School Board and City Council cannot be bridged without asking the taxpayer to take out his wallet.

Robert F. McDonnell

Member

Virginia House of Delegates

84th District

Virginia Beach, May 12, 1997

``FREE'' HELP

A new definition

for volunteerism

The last weekend in April we witnessed the latest in the seemingly never-ending parade of the Clinton administration's version of a 1960s love-in. So, what are we left with after the Volunteerism Summit? Well, first we are $3 million to $4 million deeper in debt (i.e., cost of summit); the graffiti-covered wall, painted as a photo op, was re-vandalized that night; and the kids who were the supposed subject of the summit were ignored in favor of celebrities. Ah, but we did get a new word definition:

vol-un-teer n. One who enters into any service or undertakes anything which is defined by the government as good, and for which they are paid. Example: an Americorp volunteer; cost to the taxpayer: $28,000 to $60,000 a year. Archaic: no longer applies to religious, civic, fraternal, business, sport, scouting, hospital, military, school, etc. UNPAID work which is entered into of one's own free will.

Jerry Raveling

Kill Devil Hills, N.C., May 3, 1997

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