LETTERS

We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to [email protected].

DON’T BUY IOWA WIND I just finished reading Patrick Yeagle’s Nov. 6 article, “Gloomy Days for CWLP.”

The purpose of this letter is to point out the foolishness of the contract to purchase electricity from wind farms in Iowa. As noted in the article, this contract was a settlement with the Sierra Club over the Dallman 4 power plant.

When I first read about this settlement and negotiated contract, I thought, “What a stupid idea!” Collect revenues from local customers then give it to an out-ofstate utility company? How many millions have been collected and given away since 2006? I know the Sierra Club thought they accomplished a “good thing” for the environment with this settlement.

The same environmental benefit could have been accomplished without this foolish contract.

Instead of buying electricity from a wind farm in Iowa (or any other wind farm), CWLP revenues should buy residential grid-tied solar panels and install them on homes of their customers. Keep local monies here! Jeff Davis Dawson

PARTNERING TO REVITALIZE DOWNTOWN For more than 20 years, Downtown Springfield Inc., our city’s Main Street organization, has been the primary champion for the revitalization of our downtown. As the proverbial meeting place for all issues downtown, DSI has attracted many citizens across our community to work together to improve the part of our hometown which makes Springfield, “Springfield.”

DSI has been the primary marketer of the downtown commercial district as a destination. The organization’s efforts have led to more tourism, more small businesses, and greater cultural offerings in our community center, not to mention the introduction of urban amenities such as the very popular Farmers Market. Because more people desire an urban lifestyle today, DSI is also playing an integral role to build a more sustainable neighborhood, by partnering with the Sustainable Design Assessment Team (SDAT) Action Committee to inspire the development of increased residential choices and amenities.

We need this voice for our downtown to remain strong now more than ever. We support DSI’s current fundraising efforts, and encourage everyone to make a personal donation. We also support DSI’s efforts to begin a new era of more targeted and sustainable programming for 2015. Finally, the SDAT Action Committee heartily endorses DSI’s request for city assistance in promoting the downtown district for festivals and shopping events, as well as to residents, developers and tourists. This type of publicprivate partnership works well in other Illinois cities, such as Bloomington’s Main Street, which receives $45,000 from its city and Quincy’s, which receives $80,000 annually. With so much potential in Springfield’s downtown, it would be a shame to take DSI for granted at this important juncture. SDAT Action Committee Springfield

DON’T INCREASE TAXES An open letter to legislators: It’s no secret to you that Illinois is struggling to meet its financial obligations. Even more importantly, the taxpayers who fund the state and local governments in Illinois are struggling. With the unemployment rate still too high, double digits in some places, home prices still depressed, and foreclosures still high, taxpayers are finding it difficult to make ends meet.

For many, the relief from the sunset of the 67 percent income tax increase can’t come soon enough. Taxpayers have tightened their belts and cut personal expenses as much as necessary to meet their obligations. We ask no less of you, a legislator and representative of a constituency of responsible taxpayers.

Illinois taxpayers have paid their taxes, even kicking in an extra $31 billion under the temporary income tax increase. It is now time for our representative government to cut expenses. It is past time to do the work of reforming taxation and spending in Illinois.

Every day, new government hires are placed in a pension system that is draining the resources of Illinois faster than any other program. It is time to demonstrate the political will and courage to do what is right for Illinois taxpayers, rather than what’s right for the most threatening special interest, government unions.

The policies of the last several decades are not working. We are broke, we are tired, and we are angry. Do your job and do it without giving us another pay cut. Jim Tobin President, Taxpayers United of America