In response to "Before you rush to raise taxes, cut education spending first" (Jan. 30 Forum):

Teachers buy goods and services, and pay taxes too

Do you realize the future of this state and nation depends on well-educated children and adults?

The letter writer says "for every extra dollar paid in taxes, this is money not being circulated into our economy which helps create jobs." Just where do you think those tax dollars go? Offshore accounts? That money provides for services (teachers' salaries, maintenance and construction) and is circulated back into the economy. That money does not disappear.

Ron Ludwikowski

Belmont

Cut back on education? That's the dumbest idea I've heard

Ray Sharkey says that by cutting back on education we won't be saddling our children with unsustainable future debt. Good, because they'll be too stupid to do anything about it. Cutting back on education is the most uneducated idea I've ever heard.

David Floyd

Charlotte

In response to "No need for tax increase, just start fining all traffic violators" (Jan. 25):

Don't target the hapless during rush hour - ticket real offenses

Every morning on I-485 between Mint Hill and University City Blvd., I see the same policeman in his unmarked car pulling someone over for speeding. The public is sick of pedestrian deaths, cars that run red lights at busy intersections, road-rage tailgaters, turn signal violators, texting drivers, and alcoholics behind the wheel.

It is past time to post police cars (or motorcycles) at the busiest intersections of Charlotte and start writing tickets for traffic violations that are now resulting in fatalities. This is more effective at ensuring the public's trust and raising funds than ambushing hapless drivers going 7 mph over the speed limit on a 3-lane highway during rush hour.

David E. Verrill

Matthews

Tax rate issue is really about how much needed for services

Looking at tax rates as if the number has meaning in and of itself seems silly to me. What's at issue here is what this tax money is used for and whether there's enough to fund what private enterprise doesn't fund.

So, saying that Mitt Romney's 13.9 percent tax rate is plenty may sound fine - until you realize that if we stay at that rate, then education gets cut, first responders get cut and our country's infrastructure falls to pieces. It's about choices.

No one is suggesting that the 1 percent pay taxes at 60 or 70 percent. All we're suggesting is that 30-35 percent isn't that bad and would make a big difference in helping our society.

Chris Porier

Charlotte

In response to "If Clinton affair didn't matter, then neither should Gingrich's" (Jan. 30 Forum):

Judge candidates by how well you think they can get job done

Baseball manager Casey Stengel once remarked about second baseman Bobby Richardson: "He doesn't smoke, drink or run around, and he still can't bat two-fifty." I think we'd all be better off if we judged candidates by how well they did a job.

Joseph Cavano

Charlotte

In response to "Roadside trees will be lost to billboards" (Jan. 28):

N.C. legislature's billboard law is a 'jobs bill'? Please

I await with sickening dread the implementation of the law allowing billboard companies to destroy the trees in a football-field-size area around their signs. This sounds to me like a challenged industry's last hurrah as more and more travelers and shoppers rely on web searches.

Apparently too few citizens reacted to the clear-cut lobbying pressure of the sign industry on our legislature. A jobs bill? Please. Shall we support an increase in porn and alcoholism because they create jobs?

Repeal, if possible, would come too late. At least I can support the Sierra Club's efforts to mitigate the effects.

Cathy Tolman

Charlotte

Charlotte needs to expand tree ordinance to save treasures

Last week, Charlotte lost another treasure when a magnificent 200-plus-year-old white oak was brought down at the intersection of Randolph and Sardis. Graceful and iconic, it inspired us with its beauty in every season. I am told that the new homeowner on whose lot it stood had the tree tested and deemed safe and healthy by experts, but nevertheless had the tree taken down. Because of this individual decision, we lost something truly irreplaceable.

I urge that the Charlotte tree ordinance be expanded to protect more treasured trees from needless destruction. The ordinance affords limited protection to heritage trees in some locations, but its current limitations failed us badly recently.

Barbara Birge

Charlotte

In response to "Bill James a brave voice amid all this political correctness" (Jan. 29 Forum):

It's not Bill James' 'political correctness' that's his failing

If Bill James speaks the "truth," it is a racist, divisive and ignorant truth. It's not his political correctness - or lack of it - that most people object to. It's his refusal to think before speaking and his lack of consideration for minorities and the less fortunate. I, for one, welcome competition for that commission spot. Even a food stamp-dealing Democrat would be an improvement.

Ray Otstott

Charlotte