Letters to the Editor
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
‘Passing the Buck’
Recently, I introduced my plan to lower the school property tax burden and place a cap on future tax increases. Your editorial gives this cap short shrift and laments my plan to cut school taxes by expanding the STAR, or School Tax Relief exemption for homeowners [“Passing the Buck,” April 10, 2006].
My plan goes to the heart of the school property tax issue and isn’t just another tax shell game.
In addition to the cap, my plan reforms laws which dictate how labor contracts are negotiated, eliminates wasteful requirements on school construction and requires certain non-educational functions to be consolidated.
My plan will reduce school property taxes, not shift them.This plan is a solution, not another Albany Band-Aid.
JOHN FASO
Mr. Faso is a Republican candidate for governor.
‘Chinatown Museum Expands’
I enjoyed Daniela Gerson’s article on the Museum of Chinese in the Americas, and I am glad to hear that their expanding will allow people to be more aware of Chinese-American history, which I believe helped shape America but never got the attention that it deserves [“After a Start That Raised Eyebrows, Museum in Chinatown Now Expands,” Page 1, March 21, 2006].
I had the chance to visit the museum once, by accident actually, since the museum was located in such an offshoot location, hidden away in a small building without any prominent signs and not exactly in the happening tourist part of Chinatown.
The story the museum is trying to tell and the artifacts the museum exhibits are unique and touching, or perhaps to me at least since I am Chinese.
DAVID CHENG-PING LEE
Manhattan
‘Chink in The Body Armor’
There’s a chink in your argument about body armor, and a rather large one that ignores the facts [“Chink in the Body Armor,” Editorial, March 27, 2006]. For truly the Pentagon has never claimed that its failure to provide more complete body armor for our troops in Iraq reflected the tactical need to keep the troops as light and maneuverable in the field as possible.
On the contrary, it was based on lack of adequate financing and insufficient forethought with respect to their safety. Now, if many of our soldiers decide that the extra armor is too heavy, dangerously decreasing their combat mobility, at least they’ve finally got the choice.
Consider the Humvees used to ferry our soldiers in and out of tight spots. Why aren’t they routinely equipped with the far more substantial armor of the Humvee reserved for Donald Rumsfeld’s quick visits to Iraq? Will you argue it’s because they’d have been too heavy?
DAVID M. KLEINMAN
Manhattan
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