No on ‘mean-spirited’ Measure Z, ineffective tax

The sugary beverage tax (Measure Z) is as mean spirited as it is stupid. Why do people drink sugary beverages?

Most people smoke, drink, do drugs, or eat unhealthy foods because they are coping with some kind of stress or trauma. If you want to help these folks’ health outcomes tax rich people, not the poor, and give them better wages, less work hours, more co-workers to share the burden, etc. What if people who feel economically bullied away from sugary drinks turn to other, more harmful coping tools instead?

Let us be very clear about Z, it’s either a tax or it’s a mean-spirited deterrent. It can’t be both. If everyone stops drinking sugary drinks like Z proponents want, now Z is no longer an effective tax and our funding for core government services suffers. If the tax is effective, people are continuing to drink sugary beverages at a high rate and all we are doing is robbing low-income people trying to cope with the stress of our unjust economic system.

— Reggie Meisler, Santa Cruz

Yes on Z and ‘let city lawyers sort it out’

All politics are local. In Santa Cruz, our most lopsided ballot measure involves a soda tax that has obviously gotten the attention of Big Soda (and by extension Big Plastic née Big Oil). In California, we don’t see many national election ads. But we’ve seen hundreds of social media ads and printed mailers from the No On Z blitz sponsored by Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Keurig.

I’m not much for quixotic efforts to save a tree or eliminate plastic straws, but there is substance and fiscal benefit to this proposed law. Setting aside the modest regressive nature of the tax, this is a curious and enticing ballot initiative endorsed by local health care and civic groups.

Flavored sugar water bottled in forever plastics is not food. Only corporate apologists and under-informed consumers think differently. Yes on Z, and let the city lawyers sort it out.

— Chuck Perry, Santa Cruz

Make the effort to research ballot measures

I was disturbed by the letter writer who felt that voters shouldn’t be expected to weigh in on possibly complex ballot measures and that our elected legislators should do this for us.

No one disputes that some of these issues are complicated, and often have consequences that even our government officials don’t expect.

Nevertheless, it seems to me that the small effort it takes to research the comparatively few issues that come before us and which may be consequent to our lives and those of our neighbors is a small price to pay for community self-determination.

Giving up our voting rights and letting “big daddy” just take care of us is the first step toward accepting an authoritarian government.

Sure, it takes a bit of effort a couple times a year, and no — we don’t always know what the consequences of our choices will be — but these small acts are how we protect our democracy, such as it is.

— Nadene Thorne, Santa Cruz

No palatable voting choice in District 2 race

After years of watching a Supervisor do nothing but create photo opportunities and look for his next political undertaking, I am not willing to endure it again.

The two aspiring, long-term bureaucrats running for the open District 2 seat have no place at the table. Neither one seems to be in tune with the current players on the board or their agendas. Both claim their worth by the boards they sat on. Neither have any knowledge of working with state entities when it comes to road work, trains or building mandates. This isn’t a teaching experiment, this is practical application without any room for error; neither have that experience.

I guess we have to endure the hardship of incompetence for another term as there are no other choices this late in the political game. The taxpayer, homeowner and retiree lose again.

— Arnold L. Versaw Jr., Aptos

A global disgrace: Electing a felon as president

We have never had a President of the United States who is a convicted felon. What a world-wide disgrace for this country if we should do so now.

— Barton Coddington, Santa Cruz

Read all about it: Biden’s ‘garbage’ comment

Did you see the video of Joe Biden calling Trump supporters “garbage”? You probably won’t read about this in the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

— Steven Ward, Santa Cruz