The Portland City Council recently voted to speed up the construction of sewer upgrades that should prevent raw sewage from dumping into Portland Harbor.

As one who has small children swimming in Casco Bay, I certainly welcome a cleaner bay. However, we should also recognize the huge financial impact this will have on Portland residents and especially those who rent.

Based on the rental properties our company manages — a combination of one- and two-bedroom apartments — tenants currently pay an average of $35 per month for water and sewage. Based on the bond pay-off plan, these rates will triple.

Consequently, tenants will be paying average water and sewer rates in excess of $100 per month or $1,200 per year. I would imagine Portland restaurants, likewise, will be very hard hit with this rate increase.

There are some things we have done and continue to do, such as installing low-flow shower heads and toilets that reduce water usage.

For the most part, however, these costs will be passed on to tenants, and the price of living in Portland will continue to climb.

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Bill Stauffer

Storrey Property Management

Scarborough

Turnpike Authority could learn from Florida’s tolls 

The Florida Turnpike’s policy of “toll-by-plate-number” has it right!

While traveling in Florida recently, I noticed that all toll booths are in the process of being removed. In their place is the SUNPASS (equivalent to Maine Turnpike E-ZPass) and a camera system that takes a picture of your plate and each toll.

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If you do not have a SUNPASS, you get a bill at the end of the month for the tolls plus an administrative fee of $2.50 for the month.

In my case, the toll-by-plate works as I seldom use the turnpike.

I would suggest that the Maine Turnpike Authority’s board take its last field trip to Florida to check this advanced technology out and implement it here in Maine!

As a side benefit, we could extend these electronic tolls north to Houlton for extra revenue and along Interstate 295 from Portland to Gardiner.

David Libby

Falmouth

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Republicans blackmailing nation on benefit programs

The Republican Party is now insisting that it get its way on massive cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security or it will bring the house down by not raising the debt ceiling.

Well, I am tired of being blackmailed by the party that dealt us this hand.

For eight long years under the Bush administration, this country was forced to worship at the altar of the free market and trickle-down economics. We cut taxes for the rich, we gave corporations tax holidays, we deregulated, we denied global warming existed and we waged two wars with borrowed money.

We had eight years to test the soundness of these theories. What did Republicans learn? If you listen to the current Republican presidential contenders, they learned that President Bush wasn’t successful because he neither cut taxes nor deregulated enough and was too compassionate a conservative.

Wow!

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We should have learned that blackmailers deny the facts. For example, they tell us that Social Security is broke, when in fact its excess cash flow has been used to fund the tax cuts for the rich.

They tell us that tax cuts for the rich create jobs, when in fact there were fewer jobs created during Bush’s eight years than any other similar period in our history, when the rich paid higher taxes.

They tell us that the free market will solve our health care mess, but then simultaneously violate their free market rhetoric by subsidizing the production of corn ethanol for their farmer base, and knowingly drive up the cost of food for everyone else.

Blackmail is the tool by which a zealous minority, lacking legitimate power, attempts to impose its will on the majority. It has no place in a country that professes to practice democracy.

Dwight Ely

Scarborough

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Netanyahu, Congress hold shameful display

We are a bipartisan group who have been following closely developments in the Israel/Palestine situation and sharing our impressions with one another.

We were appalled at the content and tone of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before a joint session of Congress.

Even more, we were appalled by the response the members of Congress gave, with standing ovations and apparent approval of the way in which the prime minister insulted the dignity of the president of the United States.

The entire spectacle was disgraceful, and the American electorate deserves a public apology. Israel can only continue in this behavior if it believes that our country gives it what appears to be unconditional backing. We believe that we must cease such uncritical support.

Jack Campbell and Edward F. Campbell

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and seven additional signers

Scarborough

Scenery on Florida roads proves Maine’s views better

I noticed Marion Brown’s obituary and the credit she was given for banning billboards along Maine’s roads.

I just wanted to share an observation from a vacation that my mother and I took last summer.

We drove from Portsmouth, N.H., to Boothbay Harbor and the first thing I noted was how beautiful the drive was for us. I observed that it was because your state’s natural beauty did not have the blemish of billboards.

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My mother lives in Alabama and I live in Florida. If you want to see first hand how tacky, distracting billboards blemish the beauty of nature and home, a very short drive along any major highway in our home states will provide examples.

Because of the advertisements for Cafe Risque and vasectomy services on I-75, one misses the beauty of the forests or wetlands, along with the free-roaming horses and even a ranch or two with buffalo herds.

I commend your citizens for valuing the natural beauty of Maine and protecting the environment from further destruction and distraction.

Brenda Dickey

Maitland, Fla.

 


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