The flood aid process is just one hassle after another

My son owns a small business in an area that was devastated by "Ivan the Terrible." He lost everything in his business. Through the help of his friends, he has come back to open part of the business, but has run out of money to finish the rest.

He had applied to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Small Business Administration for loans. It has been one joke after another. You wait weeks to hear anything and then they tell you they need something else, then a couple more weeks and they need something else and then you need something from Harrisburg, but they can't have the paperwork for a couple more weeks. You apply to Allegheny County for one of its loans with no interest but since you are eligible for a Small Business Loan (which has interest) you are not eligible for one of the county loans.

Since September, it has been nothing but one frustration after another (government at work).

They call to see why you haven't paid taxes, but here we are seven months after the flood and not one penny of money has come in yet in the way of a loan.

The government can get money to foreign countries quickly but to get the money to the people of our own country who pay taxes is a disgrace. Look at the flooded communities, the houses and lives in this country before you go overseas to spend our tax money.

SANDRA BATES
Oakdale

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Ridiculous process

I was fairly surprised to see my home assessment go up more than 100 percent when seeing the new assessment figures on the county's property assessment Web site. This is after the fact that my home incurred about $10,000 in damage due to the recent flooding rains.

I guess what bothers me most is the absolute nonscientific basis these people base the assessments on. They drive around the county, never getting out of their cars to inspect anything and make up what they see as curb-appeal appraisals. Check out the pictures on the Web site: Most are taken from the height of someone sitting in a car.

If this isn't reason enough to scrap the whole appraisal thing, I don't know what is. Just because my neighbors are selling their homes and the prices keep going up is no reason to believe or assume that my home value follows. One would probably get the same results by throwing darts at numbers.

Our government needs to get away from assessing and taxing our homes. There is no universally accepted, foolproof method of valuation. Until there is, let my home alone.

TOM TOMKINS
Bethel Park

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It's not fair

Acceptance of reality is long overdue for the Post-Gazette, Jim Roddey and others sharing the same view on reassessments: Property taxes will never be fair! To continually subject the residents of Allegheny County to these reassessments and subsequent appeals is unconscionable. Dan Onorato's plan may not be perfect, but it comes much closer than this new reassessment.

ELLEN NEELY
Moon

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Use the sales price

Just one question about property assessments:

If we have to live under this subjective system that assures inequitable funding of our educational system, why can't we use actual market values where they exist? If a property changed hands in the open market since the last assessment, how can the sale price not be the assessed value?

Just last February I bought a house in Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato's neighborhood for $87,000. It was assessed at $78,000. I expected my assessment to go up -- but not to $109,000 (2006 value). Sure, I'd "make out" under the cap, and so would lots of folks who have been grossly underassessed for years.

I'm willing to pay my fair share -- and as it happens, I know exactly what that is. When the recorder of deeds enters sales data, the assessment should be changed accordingly. Let the assessors spend their time and our money doing a better job evaluating properties that haven't changed hands recently.

CLEDA KLINGENSMITH
Brighton Heights

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No rhyme or reason

I went to the Allegheny County property Web site on Friday and entered the addresses of some of my neighbors, as well as my own, not for any voyeuristic or psychological reason. I wanted to know if there was an across-the-board percentage increase of values in my neighborhood -- in other words, a rationale for the new assessments.

There does not appear to be any rhyme or reason for the numbers. The eight properties on my street that I compared, none of which had any renovations, had increases ranging from 18 percent to 48 percent.

The chart that accompanied the March 5 article by Ed Blazina in the Post-Gazette revealed the same glaring inconsistencies on the featured streets, one ranging from a 1.20 percent decrease to a 41.45 percent increase.

The burning question that needs to be asked and answered is how the assessors arrived at these figures. Putting a cap on increases is a necessary quick fix but it won't make an irrational system fair.

MARY E. FORD
Mt. Lebanon

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Wind energy for Pitt

Thank you, Post-Gazette! For the past two years, members of the University of Pittsburgh's environmental coalition, Free the Planet, have been struggling to convince our administrators of the importance of wind energy. Your Feb. 28 article on that same subject was an excellent explanation of how valuable wind energy is ("Windward: Europe Enthusiastically Moving to Cleaner Form of Power as North Sea Oil Reserves Dwindle," Feb. 28).

Pitt is one of only a few universities in Pennsylvania not to purchase this clean, renewable energy source. Given the five wind-power facilities located throughout the state, there is no excuse for the university's reluctance to support the wind industry.

Not only is wind energy safeguarding our environment, but it is also protecting future jobs in America. The plant currently under construction in nearby Ebensburg is proof of the positive economic impact wind energy could provide in our community.

It is estimated that it would cost only an additional $15 per student per year to make Pitt the leading wind-powered university in the country. There is widespread support for such an expense among the student body. All that remains is for the administration to respond to the students' request and become active in this pursuit.

Pitt is a leader in higher education -- it's time for it to become a leader in environmental awareness.

ADRIENNE BIONDO
EMILY KAUFMAN
Oakland

Editor's note: The letter was signed by three others.

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O'Neill's great idea

I hope everyone read Paul O'Neill's "A New Idea for Social Security" that was in the Feb. 23 Midweek Perspectives. It is the best idea I have heard yet! A savings account for all children at birth to age 18, of $2,000, which at 6 percent would grow to $65,520 by age 18 -- owned by the individual, with no need to keep adding any more money to it, but investing it wisely in index funds.

Hijacking the Social Security system is not the way to go. I hope my senator hears me!

Any young person with a decent job can begin to do this on his own and have a huge nest egg by age 65.

Our government lost a valuable person when Mr. O'Neill left the Bush administration. We are fortunate to have him in the Pittsburgh area.

JULIA AMBROZIC
Carnegie

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'Clear Skies' bill hurts public health

Regarding the March 1 letter from Paul Oakley, executive director of the Coalition for Affordable and Reliable Energy: Let me "clear the air" for your readers about CARE and the so-called "Clear Skies" bill.

CARE is a group that includes organizations from mining, diesel and electric utility industries that would receive a huge payoff from weaker pollution laws. It is no surprise they are promoting Clear Skies; it was written with the electric-utility industry's interests in mind and not the millions of people who live in or near areas failing to meet federal air quality standards. This includes everyone in southwestern Pennsylvania.

If passed, Clear Skies will do permanent and dangerous damage to our nation's clean air laws. Among other things, it will weaken the Clean Air Act by repealing tight emissions limits for new coal-fired power plants, eliminating states' rights to get reductions from upwind states and postponing and weakening required reductions in toxic mercury pollution from power plants.

Allegheny County has some of the worst air quality in the state and nation, ranking highest for soot in Pennsylvania and fifth worst in the nation. Thousands locally already suffer the devastating health effects from power plant pollution. Clear Skies' "payoff" will be paid by all of us in the form of asthma attacks, cardiovascular disease and premature death.

RACHEL FILIPPINI
Executive Director
Group Against Smog and Pollution
Squirrel Hill