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S.J. nonresident voter
plan devalues citizenship
Re. “San Jose could ask residents to move the mayoral election cycle, let non-citizens vote,” Jan.11:
With the exception of Councilwoman Dev Davis, the entire San Jose City Council recently voted to further study the proposal from Council members Magdalena Carrasco and Sylvia Arenas to give undocumented immigrants the right to vote in municipal elections.
Does anybody really think diluting the value of U.S. citizenship is a good idea? What’s next — issuing U.S. passports to undocumented immigrants so they can transit freely between here and their country of citizenship? Is there any limit to our elected officials’ willingness to further denigrate the value of U.S. citizenship? Based on our feckless City Council’s action, apparently not.
Nicholas Cochran
San Jose
Op-Ed paints accurate
picture of Silicon Valley
I was glad to see Jerry Ceppos stand up for Silicon Valley (“Silicon Valley’s culture isn’t responsible for Holmes’ crimes,” Page A6, Jan. 11) since so many East Coast media outlets insist Silicon Valley culture is all about “Faking it ’till you make it.”
In fact, the very name Silicon Valley dates back to when companies like Fairchild, Intel, HP, National Semiconductor, AMD, Nvidia and many others continued to innovate and drive Moore’s Law to unexpected heights. “The Valley” migrated from silicon to systems with the arrival of Apple, Cisco, Juniper and eventually to software companies like Oracle, Salesforce, Google and Facebook.
None of these companies “conned” their way to success by defrauding investors and customers. Silicon Valley has always been about technology advancement through disciplined hard work where meritocracy and not fraud are keys to success.
Bob Groppo
Sunnyvale
Change in solar fees
will wipe out investment
I was flabbergasted to see The Mercury News come down on the side of PG&E, favoring more fossil fuel use by encouraging a solar power tax. The proposal would make California’s rooftop solar among the most expensive in the nation. Solar users have invested an average of more than $16,000 in their systems; this would make their investment worthless.
It violates the basic principles of regulatory fairness by changing the rules after families, businesses and nonprofits have already invested in solar. We should have incentive programs to encourage rooftop solar; it provides clean power without the leakage that comes with transport. Instead of ending it, we should put it on parking garages, over parking lots, on apartments and commercial buildings. Maybe we’d rid ourselves of brownouts and PG&E fires.
Contact the PUC today and encourage them to reject the solar tax along with the rule changes that would destroy families’ investments.
Theresa Rieve
San Jose
Churches, communities
benefit from rooftop solar
On Jan. 27 CPUC commissioners will vote to enact a new rate structure for rooftop solar that disincentivizes homeowners and nonprofits, including places of worship, from adopting rooftop solar.
The alternative to rooftop solar is dependence on solar farms that are placed in deserts. The long transmission lines increase the chance of creating wildfires. Moreover, solar farms threaten desert habitats.
More than 307 congregations in California have installed solar panels to do the right thing, according to California Interfaith Power & Light. These congregations are responding to a moral call to address climate change. These congregations are able to act as emergency centers when there are blackouts or cold snaps. Current policies have made rooftop solar affordable.
Congregations that have installed solar this past year under NEM 2.0 would be priced out if the new policy favors for-profit utility companies. With renewable energy, these congregations are able to respond to community needs.
Rani Fischer
South Bay Chapter of California Interfaith Power & Light
Sunnyvale
Over-taxed Californians
should get surplus
California has the highest state income tax rate in the nation as well as the highest state sales tax. With Trump’s draconian elimination of the SALT deductions, the amount of money to federal and state taxes that Californians pay over the past few years has gone through the roof. And the pandemic certainly has not helped matters.
I urge Gov. Gavin Newsom and our state Assembly members and senators to consider this. If there is a budget surplus then taxpayers should receive refunds accordingly, and while they’re at it maybe they could consider lowering our taxes for once.
Tom Herbert
Los Gatos
Source: www.mercurynews.com