Letters To The Editor

City tax vote
process worked
To the editor: On April 8, Oregon government worked like it was designed to work in city council chambers.
The people spoke, council members spoke. Then late that night a vote was taken on an ordinance to let voters decide in November whether the city income tax should be raised by 0.25 percent. Whether you liked the outcome or not, (the ordinance failed: two for, five against) government worked.
Unfortunately, the next day on social media one council member claimed that “democracy was silenced” and that the people had already spoken when they voted.
Does that council person mean once they were elected that we were supposed to sit down and shut up? I think a refresher in civics is in order for that council member.
Jim Ellerbush
Oregon

Questions about
the unborn
To the editor: I wonder if in the U.S. a pregnant woman is involved in a car accident and the woman and her unborn baby are both killed and the other driver is at fault, would that driver be charged with two counts of vehicular homicide?
A second question. The federal government pays a survivor’s death benefit of about $255. As the woman and child were both U.S. citizens, would there be one benefit or two?
Larry Erard
Walbridge