PUBLIC FORUM REDUCE STAFFS.

Re ``Common cents solutions'' (Jan. 18):

Two of the ideas listed are ``City departments should reduce the number of unnecessary middle managers'' and ``the city should reduce travel expenses for employee seminars of little value.'' Should not the word be ``eliminate,'' or is it being suggested that there are some ``unnecessary middle managers'' and ``seminars of little value'' we should keep?

I do agree with the idea of reducing the salaries and perks of the Mayor, City Council members and city administrators, but I would also question the size of their staff. My councilman, Alex Padilla, has at least 20 staff members on the payroll. After all, how many people does it take to tell their constituents that there is no money to do anything in their district?

- Michael McNamara 

Sylmar

They just spend more

Re ``Voters back tax hike'' (Jan. 15):

I read that 6 out of 10 likely voters say they favor tax increases as part of the solution to the deficit, according to the public opinion survey released today by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.

I would like to know who the majority is and when were these polls taken. Do they ever poll the average person to find out what they think? Or do they poll the people who might be affected by the fact they might have to tighten their belts for a change? Wake up, Californians, we will be right back where we were before recalling Davis. The more money they have to spend, the more they will spend.

- Sarah Lucas 

North Hills

Whose ox is gored?

I just loved your Jan. 15 headline: ``Voters back tax hike.'' What a dumb poll. It is just amazing that people are all for a tax (cigarettes and alcohol), that they will not pay. Let's put out a real poll about taxes like, ``Will you accept a 2 percent addition to your state income tax for the taxable year (2003)?'' I sure would like to see the results to that question. When you will be affected by a tax makes one heck of a big difference on how you may feel.

The other thing is how can so many be for more bonds? Do these people ever look at their property tax bills? The bond indebtedness we pay just gets larger and larger. At the rate we are going, the bond bills tax will be larger than the property tax itself.

- Ray Tomlinson 

Monrovia

Druthers 

I'm fighting mad. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget fix inflicts painful cuts on those who can least afford them. Arnold would rather increase fees on college students than millionaires, take food stamps from kids than ask cancer-spreading tobacco corporations to give back another 50 cents a pack, snatch away life-extending cocktails from HIV patients rather than charge another nickel on life-threatening alcohol drinks. We need to get real.

Let's increase taxes on the wealthy, alcohol and tobacco in order to avoid these painful cuts.

- Louis Robins

Van Nuys

Only one way

Re ``Poll: Voters back tax hike'' (Jan. 15):

It's no coincidence that almost exactly the same percentage ofCalifornians who think raising some taxes will help us out of ourcurrent mess is the same percentage of Democrats in the Legislature. It is a tribute to how willfully ignorant these Californians are on matters of sustainable taxation.

From our current position on the back side of the tax rate-tax revenue curve there is only one way to go with tax rates to get back to maximum sustainable revenue: Lower the rates. Any increases in tax rate targeting ``the rich'' or businesses will only produce a near-term uptick in revenue and then lead to a deepening of the deficit as more of ``the rich,'' more businesses and more retired people flee the state.

- Thomas Swift

Sun Valley

Parents should help

Re ``City bowl patrol ready to dive into LAUSD restrooms'' (Jan. 12):

I am a retired Los Angeles Unified School District teacher, with 27 years of experience in junior and senior high schools. The custodians I have known have always tried to keep the restrooms and classrooms clean. The restroom will be spotless in the morning, until the students arrive. Later in the day, some student might have failed a test and to get ``even'' with the school will stuff paper towels into the toilets to plug them up. If the school puts in electric hand dryers, then some some students will blot their lipstick on the walls or stall doors. Graffiti is another problem.

It would be wonderful if the parents of the students that vandalize the restrooms were required to spend hours supervising the facilities.

- Shelley O. Smith

Granada Hills

Cell phone driving

Apparently some people have never heard of voice dialing. When in my car, I push one button (for which I don't have to take my eyes off the road). Then I speak the name of the person I am calling, and the phone dials the number. Most phones also have voice answering. Welcome to the 21st century.

- John Green

Northridge

Filling space

Re ``Bush's vision on space big; details small'' (Jan. 15):

From the man who underfunds education to leave no child behind, or wages war on Iraq over weapons of mass destruction yet is unable to find them, comes a bold new program to populate space. This as record job losses escalate across America. This while federal and state governments are buried beneath unprecedented deficits.

Despite all the rhetoric that's contrary to fact, one point is perfectly clear: We need to populate the empty space between George W. Bush's ears.

- Gary Miller 

Woodland Hills

Whose interests

With the U.S. government finally admitting that Hussein probably didnot have ties with al-Qaida, did not have nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction in his arsenal, Donald Rumsfeld's blurted answer to ``Meet the Press'' Tim Russert's question about our purpose in going to war in Iraq was the truthful one: ``to capture the oil fields.''

So I am wondering if the invasion of Iraq was to protect the oil interests of the Bush family?

- Jean Strauber

Encino

All in the family

Re ``Transforming lifestyles'' (Their Opinions, Jan. 12):

Scientists recently interviewed a Central Asian family that purportedly carries certain genes seminal to all of modern-day European, Russian, North American and South American mankind (in that emigration order). The singularly unique members of this family were exuberant upon learning of their family line's status as the sole traceable, genetic wellspring for so many of our world's people.

Now then, why not let us have a major conference, maybe a pow-wow as it were, in which we and our ``Native American'' brothers can mutually agree to pass the mantle of claim over just which people this land of ours should really belong to; i.e. that one and only, that mother-of-all-families down Central Asia way, of course.

- Harvey Pearson

Los Feliz

Not their style

Re ``'Fessing up'' (Your Opinions, Jan. 13):

Not the whole world thinks O.J. is guilty, and no, it is not obvious to me. I think the evidence that pointed to O.J.'s supposed guilt was planted by the real killers. No, I don't believe the Los Angeles Police Department planted evidence, for the same reason I don't believe O.J. is a murderer. It's just not their style.

- Rikio Matsunami

Los Angeles 

Pete Rose

Like many of us - probably all - at some point in our lives, have made stupid mistakes, Pete Rose is no exception. He deserves to be inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame. He is one terrific athlete, one of strong passion for the game.

Deep down, Rose regrets betting on baseball and even if he continues to bet on other sports (i.e. horse racing). He enjoys it. He doesn't enjoy the cloud that overshadows his past. It's time to add Pete Rose to the roster of Hall of Fame inductees.

- Pam Taguinot

Woodland Hills