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Tax holiday could help
first-time homebuyers
My son and future daughter-in-law are now trying to buy their first home. The market can best be described as irrational: dozens of competing offers 20%-30% above list, no contingencies, accompanying letters begging for the chance to purchase.
Friends and neighbors who have owned their homes for years are claiming to be “married” to their properties, unwilling to sell due to the horrendous tax burden. Better, they say, to wait for one to die. The heirs then receive a step-up in basis – no capital gains tax owed and, unfortunately, no government revenue generated.
Our current tax structure, unintentionally, has restricted the supply of needed units and poured gasoline on the inflationary fire in housing. My proposal: A two-year tax holiday cutting both federal and state rates on sales of primary residences resulting in more availability for young buyers, greater mobility for sellers, and increased government revenue.
Jordan Walters
Saratoga
Require vaccination proof
for COVID paid time off
Re. “COVID-19 sick leave set to return in California,” Jan. 25:
The Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom plan to require businesses to provide paid time off (PTO) for employees who get COVID-19 or need to care for a family member with COVID. Requiring that the employee be vaccinated for this benefit would create a powerful incentive for those workers who are resisting vaccination.
Failing to add this requirement would waste a perfect opportunity to reduce the likelihood of ICU bed shortages and the emergence of a new variant. Since this requirement would not force anyone to get the vaccine, the personal liberty anti-vaxxers would have no grounds for squawking about it
Jerry Smith
Palo Alto
Biden’s Cold War take
on Russia-Ukraine
I’m very disappointed by President Biden’s populist stance regarding Russian troop demonstrations at the Ukrainian border.
The desire to spread democracy and halt the spread of communism is a return to Vietnam mentality and reminiscent of Obama-era intervention failures in Syria, Yemen and Libya.
Vladimir Putin can hardly be faulted for wanting to extend Russian influence within the former USSR territory. That doesn’t make him Hitler, or even close. He fears that Ukraine will be invited to join NATO, which has outlived its charter. Since the close of the Cold War, NATO is no more than a provocation to Russia and Putin.
A simple offer by the United States to oppose NATO admission for Ukraine might well enable a diplomatic solution instead of war.
Fred Gutmann
Cupertino
Comic crosses line into
COVID misinformation
Your readers have long endured the cliched conservative bromides of the thoroughly unfunny Millard Fillmore comic. But the Jan. 25 strip (Page B9) challenging the effectiveness of masks crosses a line into COVID-19 disinformation.
Most social media platforms block this kind of harmful content. I expect more from a newspaper.
Kenneth Brown
San Jose
Senate didn’t listen
to voice of reason
The editorial page (Page A6, Jan. 25) ran a cartoon disparaging Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. These senators displayed enormous courage and conviction standing up for principles that do not allow the majority to silence the minority but encourage collaboration for the common good. They have faced enormous pressure from their own political party, and you choose to insult them by running a disrespectful cartoon.
Last week, Sen. Lisa Murkowski expressed regret that the Senate was not given an opportunity to debate and work together toward a mutually agreeable solution. She described a troubling conversation in which someone said: “depending on which side you are on … you’re either a racist or a hypocrite.”
The lack of debate and bipartisan deliberation in Congress is just another example of the deterioration of civility in the United States, where an individual with a differing view is slandered. Oh, that others would listen to Murkowski’s voice of reason.
Lynn Evans
Menlo Park
