Homer Women of Action support local issues

Homer Women of Action announces a peaceful rally on Saturday, April 19, at WKFL Park, Pioneer Street and Heath Street from noon to 1 p.m. to voice sustained resistance.

Homer Women of Action welcomes everyone worried or displeased by recent notification to gut Congressionally approved federal funding for Homer’s Pratt Museum and public libraries; worried about cuts in services to veterans, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security; concerned about the devastating drop in the stock and bond markets and the drastic drop in oil prices and how the recent tariff fiasco impacts Alaska’s economy and local businesses; worried about repercussions to their retirement accounts and employment wondering if the SAVE Act will take away your right to vote; worried about Alaska’s public education system funding; or concerned about the potential loss of our U.S. constitutional rights.

Bring your signs and peacefully stand in solidarity with your friends, family, neighbors and coworkers.

Voice your sustained resistance and make a difference.

Homer Women of Action

Tell lawmakers: SAVE Act isn’t the right approach

The SAVE Act is before Congress now. The act seeks to prevent voter fraud by requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote.

The proposed act will make registering to vote more burdensome. It requires proof of U.S. citizenship. A passport, driver’s license, military ID, state ID, tribal ID, or real ID may be used if the ID has both a photo and states the person was born in the United States. As most of these IDs don’t indicate where the person was born, a certified copy of a birth certificate or a passport is required. Both acceptable options come with costs in money (Alaska birth certificate $30; U.S. passport $130) and time (eight weeks or more.)

The names on the documents proving citizenship must match; a birth name must match the name on your photo ID. If they do not, additional documents will be needed for marriage, adoption or other legal name changes.

The act requires a person to appear in person with proof of citizenship documents at an official election office, and there are only six in Alaska — Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, Bethel, Nome and Kenai. There are no exceptions for people in rural areas.

The act discourages voting and will not improve election security. Studies of voter fraud find very few instances of fraud by noncitizens. Far more eligible voters than fraudulent ones would be prevented from voting. The primary effect of the SAVE Act will be to discourage voting.

Let our congressional delegation know that while secure elections are important, the SAVE Act isn’t the right approach.

Submitted on behalf of the League of Women Voters of the Kenai Peninsula and the League of Women Voters of Alaska.

Cathleen Rolph, president

League of Women Voters of the Kenai Peninsula

Grateful for such a supportive community

We would like to send out a message of thanks to the Homer Bookstore for selecting Kachemak Bay Recovery Connection as the March recipient of their “Blind Date with a Book” contributions. Every dollar contributed to KBay Recovery helps support individuals and families seeking recovery from substance use disorders.

We also want to thank the Friends of Homer Public Library for sponsoring a Fireside Chat and community conversation about recovery from substance use disorders earlier this month. Annie Garay, the wellness nurse from South Peninsula Hospital, and I shared our experiences with community response to addiction, including local support resources. Our talks were followed by a vibrant conversation among those attending the event.

We are grateful to live in such a supportive community which includes our booksellers and public library, sources of very valuable information available to all. To learn more about KBay Recovery, find us on the web at kbayrecovery.org or stop by our Recovery Community Center at 111 W. Pioneer Ave.

Willy Dunne

President, Kachemak Bay Recovery Connection

Food pantry volunteers needed

As the seasons ebb and flow, so do our volunteers at the pantry. Just putting a shoutout to folks who may be interested in volunteering at the pantry on Mondays. The schedule is from 9-11:30 a.m. for morning setup and cleaning veggies and items to distribute to our clients; 11:45 a.m. or noon to 3 p.m.-ish to distribute to clients. Some prefer helping in the a.m., others in the afternoon and some even spend the day with us. We provide a home-cooked meal to all volunteers, but the biggest payoff is in helping those in need in Homer and the self-pride gleaned from helping others.

You can contact 907-235-1968, Kordell Jones, who is the volunteer coordinator, or simply show up and we can direct you in the process. We are located in the Homer United Methodist Church, next to Homer High School.

Deb Schmidt

Homer Food Pantry Board member

Rep Vance on the budget and oil tax

Rep. Vance stated that she did not support any oil tax change at the Homer Saturday town hall. Her Republican caucus has made a similar statement. However, cutting the $8 per barrel oil tax credit of the old Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk fields is the only source of new revenue that could balance the budget this year. The state allows these producers to subtract the $8 per barrel before submitting their production taxes to the state, so citizens don’t see what would be the second-largest budget expenditure after education ($8 times 400,000 barrels per day, times 365 days equals $1.2 billion per year).

Alaskans don’t realize that at less than $64 per barrel this $8 per barrel credit is paying these largest corporations more than the TOTAL value we get for our 12-1/2% royalty “ownership share.” At any oil price of the last several years or oil price projected in future budgets, we will be “paying” them this same amount. Rebating to oil corporations our ownership share value while starving our public schools, lowering the Alaska Permanent Fund dividend and deferring maintenance should NOT be the position of any member in our state Legislature.

Hopefully the minority Republican caucus will reconsider its position and make this indirect expenditure cut.

Former Rep. Paul Seaton

Homer

Stand together to keep our republic in place

As a concerned citizen and veteran who served this country, I have several questions as to the state of our country. Every day we are confronted with more chaos as our freedoms and benefits are being stripped away by those elected to represent us, as well as appointees not elected by us.

Many serious issues are confronting us but it seems our voices aren’t being heard. Laws are being broken or ignored. All the while, we the taxpayers are shelling out upward of $800,000 for the one in the White House to play golf in Florida most weekends. I question whether the Rose Garden really needs a do-over? Or is there really a need to build a ballroom at the White House? I suspect the taxpayers will be on the hook for these projects if they really are completed.

All the while the one in the White House plays golf and Elon Musk is allowed to rip through agencies — having civil servants fired, going after Social Security and Medicaid. Elon said he would claw back $2 trillion. Don’t see that working out too well. Let’s also take a look at those Elon appointed to collect information on millions of Americans. What happens with that information? So much for privacy. Some elected officials desperately want to raise the debt ceiling and if that happens who benefits? Can we please see Elon’s citizenship papers?

We must stand together and keep our republic in place.

Betsy Nixon

Kenai