Enrollment at Tacoma schools is falling. Providing better before-school care is key | Opinion

Before-school care

Enrollment at Tacoma Public Schools (TPS) continues to decline. State education funding is based on enrollment, so decreasing enrollment is a contributor to TPS’s anticipated budget shortfall, as reported by The News Tribune.

While many factors contribute to decreasing enrollment, it is important to reduce barriers to getting children to school.

One barrier, in particular, is the before-school care program. TPS’s before-school care programs start later than other districts. Being an outlier for an essential service is not supporting students or helping them attend school.

TPS should carefully consider the burden that a later start time for before-school care places on families — and consider the possibility that families will choose options outside of TPS because of the lack of accessible before-school care.

It is important to reduce barriers for children attending school.

Expanding before-school care and making it accessible to more children has the potential to create a more sustainable environment for families and TPS.

Emily Wallace, Tacoma

Natural gas

In a recent op-ed published in The News Tribune, Puyallup state Sen. Chris Gildon’s fear-mongering regarding the phasing out of natural gas scares his constituents with the financial cost of voluntary conversion to clean electric appliances without discussing the considerable health and climate benefits — the reasons for HB 1589.

That’s like listing the side effects of chemo without mentioning it cures cancer.

Puget Sound Energy’s website states: “HB 1589 does not include a ban on natural gas, and it does not change PSE’s obligation to serve natural gas to our customers.”

Natural gas is methane: when leaked from wells it harms the climate, and when burned in power plants and appliances it produces less soot than other fossil fuels but the same harmful CO2.

Medical research documents higher rates of asthma in homes that cook with unvented gas stoves, and climate science shows proven harms despite doubts sown by the fossil fuel industry with tactics used by tobacco companies last century.

Back then we used wood, coal and fuel oil to cook and heat our homes. Although methane was a useful transition energy source, its time is up, too.

Clean electricity from hydro, wind and solar is much better for our health.

While the switch may cost a bit, good health and a sustainable climate are priceless.

Breck Lebegue, Steilacoom

Gig Harbor Prop. 1

Gig Harbor can fund services and live within its means

This month, Gig Harbor voters are asked to approve a permanent levy lid lift on property taxes. We’re warned of a forecasted budget shortfall that will impact services like police and public safety, parks and recreation, street maintenance, community activities and support for small businesses.

We do not hear that since 2013 Gig Harbor’s actual property tax dollar receipts have increased. Nor have we heard that during this same period, Gig Harbor’s general fund revenues increased significantly.

In addition to the April 23 special election, on Aug. 6 Gig Harbor residents will vote for a Public Safety Sales tax of one-tenth of one percent (0.1%) that’s expected to raise $1 million for the city and will help to fully fund our police department. Enacting a business and occupation tax that exempts small businesses could generate an additional $1.5 to $2 million.

If Gig Harbor voters approve a public safety sales tax later this year and the City Council adopts a B&O tax, as other municipalities in the state have done, Gig Harbor would realize an increase in revenue of $2.5 to $3 million.

I, for one, will vote “no” on Proposition 1.

The Gig Harbor City Council needs to manage expenditures within the city’s current revenue sources, and there are other options available to fund services.

Edward Nadler, Gig Harbor

Why approving Prop. 1 is critical for Gig Harbor

Like many of you, I’ve been talking with lots of people about the revenue shortfalls facing the city.

I thought it was time to get the facts out more broadly than 1:1 conversations.

Gig Harbor’s general fund has a $2 million shortfall beginning with the next biennium. That fund, one of many in the city’s 200-plus page budget, pays for the vast majority of the services we all use and expect to be there.

The shortfall was caused because residents asked for less development. So, many of the vacant positions are in the planning department. But we still must operate a city that’s grown 65 percent in the past 10 years, which costs more money.

Your taxes will likely go up about $25 per month if Prop. 1 passes, depending on the value of your home. It’s the first increase in more than 40 years.

You may have heard we should put this on the backs of business owners. Business owners are also property tax owners, so they’ll already pay the increase. Why should they bear the burden?

A business and operations tax is dependent on the revenue of each business, which fluctuates with the economy and is less stable than property tax.

We cannot wait until August (to vot on a Public Safety Sales tax). It doesn’t work with county election deadlines, or our staff workload and morale.

I love Gig Harbor and know you do too. Please vote “yes” to keep our city thriving.

The views expressed here are mine and not necessarily those of the city.

Le Rodenberg, Gig Harbor