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Sales Tax Hike Not Viable Option

Dear Editor:

State Sen. James Rhoades has proposed that the state's sales tax be raised to 9.1 percent.

I'm not sure if the senator fully understands that Pennsylvania is basically a rural state, and most of it is not populated by large areas of developed industry and business areas.

In this small, shrinking area of our own corner of Pennsylvania, and as a business owner, I wonder if Sen. Rhoades knows the reality of the economics of the state and its people.

We face a mass exodus of people, young and old, leaving our state every year for better jobs and opportunities.

I can guarantee most businesses that have to deal with the sales tax issue as part of everyday transactions would have "Going Out of Business" signs fairly quickly because customers would find other ways of purchasing goods by the Internet or from a state with a lower sales tax.

Policymakers, unfortunately, don't see reality once they go to the "beltway" to make decisions for the rest of us.

I'm just hoping Sen. Scarnati and Rep. Causer can help Sen. Rhoades see that his solution is not an option for the rest of Pennsylvania's residents.

Carol Orris

McKean County

Hunting Dialogue Needs To Continue

Dear Editor:

While the deer and forestry meeting in Coudersport may have been a little heated, we should hope it will serve as a start for further dialogue, even though it looks like everyone is dug in.

For many it appears there could be underlying reasons for the obvious campaign to drastically reduce deer numbers to historic lows.

Who regulates the numbers and how Pennsylvania's antlerless deer license allocations are justified? These matters certainly are not in hunters' hands.

I agree with Susan Stout, research forester, who stated, "Our communities need to figure out how to get along," but I was a bit put off when Bret Wallingford, deer biologist, said with regard to hunting antlerless deer: "To me, as a manager, it doesn't matter if you kill it with muzzleloader, or a rifle, or a bow and arrow, or a bowling ball, or Napalm or anything else -- it's a dead deer to me."

One could read that as, "The only good deer is a dead deer."

Seth Cassel made it pretty clear that his top priority is timber. The forest itself and the deer are not in his train of thought.

Seth will find it hard to win the hearts and minds of hunters whose interest is in deer and not in timber. After all, who stands to gain the most if the deer population is kept way down?

I was glad to see Jack Krafft touch on a subject that I have railed on for years when he said, "Hunting dollars are paying for the management of everything."

Dialogue needs to continue and hunters need to demand to be heard. We also can't ignore those in our ranks who seriously need to clean up their act.

If deer hunting only means bragging rights, photos and videos of your success, a little meat in the freezer and a chance to massage your ego, you might want to look into stamp collecting or basket weaving.

Leon E. Hillyard

Eldred

Tom Mix Story

Shows Society's

Decline

To the Editor:

I enjoyed your article on Tom Mix.

It isn't surprising that attendance dropped off at the museum and homestead in Cameron County, as most people today have never seen a Tom Mix film.

It was somewhat telling about our society to read in your story that Tom Mix never cussed, smoked or drank in film because he knew children would be watching.

Sad to see how far (down) have we spiraled in the two generations since!

While I never saw a Tom Mix film, I did visit the museum in Cameron County years ago. Recently I received a catalog from a Pennsylvania company that sells old movies on DVD and CD.

One was a collection of the Tom Mix films which I will be ordering for a mere five bucks. Internet at oldies.com. Just looking through it is like a trip back in time.

If the Tom Mix museum starts back up in new quarters, I am sure they could get bulk prices and sell them in the gift shop. Maybe that could even fill an empty storefront in Emporium.

Don Dorsett

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