March 04, 2006
Saturday PM

Mr. Ripley thank you for your opinion. I really appreciate you coming forward. Let me start out by saying this, you want to cap the amount of extra tourists that wander in the streets to 2000 to 5000 extra, but you don't give a baseline of how many are already ashore. So I assume you expect an increase from what we had to some undetermined amount. The fact is this summer we will have one hundred thousand less tourists wandering around. With the yes vote on the bond we are trying to attract back what we lost and in the end there will be no more tourists here than we ever had. With the northern dock going in they will be more spread out thus relieving congestion downtown.

The Senior Services located on Water street will hopefully be moving into the new White Cliff development, they have hopes of renting out their building that will be across the street from a brand new development on the Waterfront Storage site to a tourist oriented business thereby generating funds for the seniors. The seniors there also have received generous donations from the cruise lines, a no vote would impact both of the aforementioned points.

As far as taxes going up well they would really be up if it were not for the revenue that we get from tourism. Taxes collected from tourism keeps taxes down. the main reason taxes are going up is because of entitlement spending like on your state benefits and retirement packages.I do not want to pay the six billion shortfall for the public employees retirement fiasco but I have to. This is really going to make your taxes go up but at least you and other public employees will be cozy in your old age. My taxes will go up to support you but I will get zero,"chew on that for a while". You work for the state and have a juicy retirement package that will be there forever. Your health care and pension COLA are paid for by the taxpayer. You are set and that is fine, but please don't forget people like me who depend on tourism for their survival.

My wife and I run a B&B we also have real estate investments that hopefully in 20 years when I'm 67 I will have everything paid off and I can retire and live off the income from these properties - that is if I don't get ill which then I will go bankrupt because I cannot afford the health care that you have. We are the people who are risking it all. I think you should open a business then maybe you would understand. All business people in this town get tourist dollars in one way or another and because someone gets annoyed by a tourist stepping into the roadway and snapping a photo of the welcome arch might inconvenience you that is not a reason to vote no.

You bring up the sixties and taxes back then, well there are so many regulations since then it boggles the mind and regulations cost big time so your taxes go up.

I hope you reconsider your position as I support you and your job, please support me and mine.

Thanks,

Tom Ferry
Ketchikan, AK - USA

About: Tom Ferry writes he's a "fourth generation Alaskan commited to restoring Newtown."

Related Viewpoint:

Port Bond By Steve Ripley - Ward Cove, AK - USA

 

Write a Letter -------Read Letters

E-mail the Editor

Sitnews
Stories In The News
Ketchikan, Alaska