Davis

I could not possibly disagree more with Leon GaroyanÕs perspective on Prop. 21 (ÒProposition 21 is bad tax policy,Ó Oct. 22).

I drive a car. I do not nearly pay in registration fees or state or federal taxes what it costs to get my roads repaired, my air cleaned, my safety ensured through highway patrol and street signs and traffic lights. And in being a motorist, I not only accept, but demand, the use of fees from all residents of California, car owners or not, to also pay to pave over land that could be parks and undisturbed wilderness so that I can drive.

Mr. Garoyan, how much tax money spent on these resources should we give back to the people who do not register a car in California each year? Perhaps, instead, we should fund their parks.

Prop. 21 asks a few (actually many, many of us who register cars each year) to pay less than the cost of half a tank of gas once a year to underwrite the state parks so that we who register cars and use the parks can pre-pay park fees for ourselves and (OMG) all of the rest of our state and its visitors.

Parks will be there for Girl Scouts to camp, buddies to fish, families to ride bikes, couples to stroll and contemplative souls to just clear their thoughts. I and everyone one else who has, as you requested, Òthought this one throughÓ and decided to vote yes, will willingly (and forcefully) proclaim my belief that there are some things that are worth paying for and are worth asking others among us with the means to do so to pay for, for the good of the state and all her people.

I also confess an ulterior motive. I hope that when the Legislature sees there are still some residents of means in this wonderful state, who will come together, tax themselves and thereby support and preserve treasures like our amazing state parks, they, too, will know that some things really are worth preserving and worth paying for.

If not, if Prop. 21 does mean, as Garoyan predicts, that this will open the door for taxation by direct vote of the electorate so that we may keep funding our public schools, our public health departments, our libraries and all of the other services Ònot used generally by all citizens,Ó then at least some of us will still have a mechanism to keep these treasures from disintegrating further than they already have.

Michelle Famula

Davis

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